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| Photo: Joyce D'Agostino |
This spring as I was moving around some bags of soil in my garden, I found a large toad that was hiding beneath a bag. I almost missed seeing it since its color blended in very well with the fallen leaves and gravel to make it almost unnoticeable.
Toads are beneficial to your garden environment, eating many harmful insects. They often hide during the heat of the day and come out at night to feed or to find a mate. They can prefer wetlands areas but don’t need a water source as frogs do and are happy to live in garden areas. Having them present in your garden is very beneficial and will help protect your plants from insects that may do damage.
The toad I found in my garden is a Woodhouse’s Toad, Anaxyrus woodhousii. It is one of the larger toads for our area, is brown and gray and has bumpy skin. The bumps on the skin actually are glands that secret a poison that makes it taste bad to a predator. It’s not true that these glands secret a substance that causes warts in humans. Common predators include hawks, raccoons and skunks.
To help protect your toad from a predator, you can provide a small sheltered area where it can hide, or if you like to craft a Toad House, you can find some ideas below.
While they may not be a cuddly animal that you can have as a pet, they are a welcome addition to a healthy ecosystem in your garden. Check around your garden in the evening and see if you have one of these helpful visitors.
