frogs

[Russethouse]

Belle, I think most people are just astounded that you have purchased a house with a pond and are now complaining about frogs - if you have a pond, frogs come with the territory. Did it not occur to you at all ?

As it upsets you the practical matter to address is how to get rid of the pond, as cheaply as possible. Could you drain it ? (I think its probably a job for cooler weather, it will probably smell now) and then ask your friends to give you any suitable material for filling in, (if any of them are building or renovating they should be able to come up with something)  then use the opportunity to plant things as Astillbes, Hosta's etc, things that like damp, perhaps have a pebble pool  In the mean time I suspect it may be worth trying garden lights in the area, you could test it with a few candles first.

[Belle]

thanks for your comments RH I think I have said before, that when we bought this house we asked the sellers about frogs, and were told, that for some reason they hardly had any compared to other people, call us nieve, but we believed them.Also even if that conversation never happened, we hadn't any knowledge of frogs, or their mating habits, or actually anything at all about them, we came from the city, on days out in the country we would come across the odd croak, but nothing like we have here, we must have hundreds. A lesson to be learnt by anyone not doing enough research.

[Russethouse]

The funny thing is that the sellers may have thought you would be dissapointed at the lack of frogs [:)]

 

[Weedon]

Doesn't that just go to show that life here in rural France isn't just one big bowl of cherries as the TV programmes like to portray.  Actually, it won't be many months now and then life will be many many big bowls of cherries, if only the Starlings would leave me some.  I have owls that make a screeching noise and one (it might be more than one) that goes toowit to woo when it is particularly quiet.  In my little (ish) pond I have some frogs that seem to croak Des O'Connor songs and there is an even bigger pond on the land nearby where an army of frogs make a helluva row which I can hear over the sound of the ice clinking in my drinks, there is even one that sits right outside my window and keeps whistling. Kestrels and Buzzards do their best to annoy me with their own noises and the cows in the field next door keep bellowing at their calves.  Don't those green woodpeckers make a b***y din, and now the cuckoo has started.  Altogether, life is a real nightmare here in Mayenne.

[Cat]

What, you mean you don't have any turtle doves cooing away outside your bedroom window at 5 in the morning, you don't know you're born you don't Weedon [;-)]

 

[Russethouse]

Tell you what, I'll swap you for the sound of the police helicopter going up when both your children are out (even if they are grown up !) [;-)]

[Cat]

Swap?  Not with me you won't, every time I hear the fire siren down in the village to call the pompiers to a job, I imagine the worst, and I have (as you know) a very vivid imagination [:$]

[Weedon]

Just be careful out there!

http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3086250900100115447pqDrrZ

[mooky]

Why did I just know you would reply to my statement!

I wrote what I did on behalf of the frogs who can't speak up for themselves. You obviously can, they can't;

[steve]

I just had a thought, maybe Belle should have a quiet word with the frogs and ask them if they could only make noise between certain hours of the day, say 8am -12pm, 2pm - 7.00pm - 7.30pm

If the frogs don't comply, she should report them to her mairie.

As for complaining about me calling you shallow, what do you expect when you post something ridiculous on open forum!

You can drain the pond, or not drain the pond, but you will have the frogs calling every year, whether there is water or not, you will also be destroying their breeding ground, as frogs return to the place that they were spawned.

No matter what you do, you cannot escape the sounds of nature.

 

 

[Belle]

You are a bit late with your nasty reply, this thread was finished ages ago, and don't you dare say that anything I post on the forum is stupid, we are all here to ask each-other questions, and to bounce our problems and fears off of one another, if you don't like any of my threads, then ignore them. Easy as that.

[Gemini_man]

Well I think some of you are being too hard and unkind to Belle. If you bought a house with a large pond out of frog breeding season and if you have never experienced a pond full of cackling frogs at close quarters before, it would very likely come as a big shock the first Spring that you were there. There are lots of ponds in and around the village where I live and I enjoy hearing the frog noise at a distance but no way would I want it in my garden and that doesn't mean I'm not a nature lover, far from it, it's simply that the noise can be overwhelming. Personally if I was in Belle's situation I would invest in a cheap pump and empty the pond or at least reduce it's size, discretely.

As for people who have bandied personal abuse about in this thread I think it's rather sad that they cannot tolerate other peoples views and opinions without lowering themselves to being unpleasant.

 

[Gastines]

We have 2 frogs ,very quiet and hopefully happy in their new home along with our2 newts. They used to live in a pond in a plot we are selling but after lots of tears from my wife [slight exageration] I had to build a rockery in a damp corner of our garden and install 2 new ponds,one deep , one shallow, albeit fairly small to rehouse them. They are still there this morning so I presume they are happy with the accomodation provided. If they get friends to move in and noise emanates from them ,they will be moving back to their old quarters.

A new visitor arrived yesterday.a Jay, rather partial to cherries,left by freinds, and walnuts that I de-shell for our other birds. Although not a very well liked bird,we rather like them.Haven't seen one in our area before.

Regards. and good croaking!!

[steve]

[quote user="steve"]

I just had a thought, maybe Belle should have a quiet word with the frogs and ask them if they could only make noise between certain hours of the day, say 8am -12pm, 2pm - 7.00pm - 7.30pm

If the frogs don't comply, she should report them to her mairie.

As for complaining about me calling you shallow, what do you expect when you post something ridiculous on open forum!

You can drain the pond, or not drain the pond, but you will have the frogs calling every year, whether there is water or not, you will also be destroying their breeding ground, as frogs return to the place that they were spawned.

No matter what you do, you cannot escape the sounds of nature.

 

 

[/quote]

Where on earth did I say that you were stupid?

Open forums are to express opinions, give advise, and yes, maybe push fun at some of the more ridiculous posts, it all keeps a happy balance!

As for my 'nasty comments' hardly nasty, just a bit of light hearted banter.

Maybe the frogs are just as annoyed with the noises that you make, as you are with them!

[Belle]

Thank you for your comments and support G M.

    

 

Steve, no you are right, you didn't call me stupid, I applogise for that, but you did call my post ridiculous, none of us are here to judge what is or isn't ridiculous, no matter what we all think of each-others posts, we keep it to ourselves, and give help and advise where we can, I didn't see your response to me as light hearted banter, so I will stick to what I said previously, if you think that any post of mine is ridiculous, please by pass it, because I havn't joined this forum to have this sort of conversation with another forum member, that's not what it's all about.

[Gemini_man]

"France has seen a growing number of court clashes over rural life.

In Reynies in the nearby Tarne-et-Garonne, a British family were taken

to court by their French neighbour, who claimed the croaking frogs in

their pond made life intolerable for his sick wife.

The Britons won the case, after arguing that the town's name was derived from the French word for a tree frog."

[:P]

Taken from todays Telegraph:   http://tinyurl.com/4pjxw8

[cooperlola]

Cathy posted this elsewhere - quite funny that it was the French person who was complaining!  Personally, I love the sound of the frogs here, which inhabit a large pond about 50 metres from the house.  But I sleep with the windows and the shutters closed, to keep the house nice and cool, so maybe that's why they don't bother me so much?

[Gastines]

Quite correct about frogs returning to their home pond. Having installed two small ponds in a new rockery in a nice shaded wet corner of our garden especially to re-house our 2 frogs.They stayed one day and then hopped it back to their original pond overnight. A distance of about 100metres.Not quite sure how they found their way as it is in a plot we are selling that I have fenced off . At the bottom of the fence is a layer of DPC and fine mesh wire netting. I can only presume that they went under the front gate and around our fence to get back in,don't think they jumped the fence as it's 2metres high. I intend to leave them in peace and buy 2 small goldfish,non jumping ones.

Regards.

[Russethouse]

Logic tells me it can't always be true though, as otherwise no new ponds would attract frogs, and they do.

[Georgina]

Belle, I have tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears), and when it first started, the only noise that would let me sleep was the sound of frogs in a tropical forest. So I got a tape and played it whilst I slept. I would have given my right arm, to just hear that noise because the other alternative can drive you nuts. However when I stopped concentrating on the noise and had a distracting one, my brain adjusted - I still have the tinnitus but I don't concentrate on it, i think maybe you can do that with the frogs if you try. At least it is not permanent. [:)]

Georgina

[Rich1972]

I have midwife toads living in the flowerbeds under the windows as well as green frogs in the pond about 10 metres from the house. The frogs warble on throughout the day but it comes and goes, sometimes it's louder than others and now and again they seem to get carried away and the croaking reaching a crescendo, but at night it's not a problem. The midwife toads are really weird and I wondered what on earth it was when I first heard it. Like an alarm going off somewhere *beep* *beep* *beep*. There are only about 15 frogs in the pond and about the same number of toads in the flowerbeds. It doesn't bother me at night because I sleep with a fan on all-year round (a habit I developed a few years ago and have never got out of - it drowns out all other noise).

Btw, I think the french word for 'frog' is the single most difficult sound I've ever tried to pronounce!!!! I've asked the nextdoor neighbour many times and I just cannot get the hang of it!

Rich

[Clair]

[quote user="Rich1972"]... Btw, I think the french word for 'frog' is the single most difficult sound I've ever tried to pronounce!!!! I've asked the nextdoor neighbour many times and I just cannot get the hang of it! [/quote]

How do you feel about the French word for squirrel?[:)]

[Rich1972]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Rich1972"]... Btw, I think the french word for 'frog' is the single most difficult sound I've ever tried to pronounce!!!! I've asked the nextdoor neighbour many times and I just cannot get the hang of it! [/quote]

How do you feel about the French word for squirrel?[:)]

[/quote]

Just looked it up in my dictionary and...I think I'll pass! Those 'euil' endings defeat me every time!

I did see a red squirrel scuttling across the road a week ago though :)

[Patf]

Rich - we have midwife toads here too. When we first heard them we spent ages searching for electric gadgets that hadn't been turned off. Eventually I enquired  about it and found out the noise was of animal origin.

I actually saw two of them, a few months ago, under some long grass. Tiny things with a cluster of eggs on their back.Very cute [:)]