Gardening for Wildlife

Toad shelter

Related Terms: habitat, protection, house, toad

Toads feed on insects and other invertebrates. They're particularly fond of slugs, sowbugs, earwigs, cutworms, and gypsy moths. In fact, nearly 90 per cent of a toad's diet consists of garden pests. In a single growing season, a busy toad can consume more than 10,000 of these uninvited guests. Toads like to hide in cool, dark places during the day and come out a night to hunt. Not surprisingly, they avoid pesticide-ridden, manicured lawns. The following accommodations will get high ratings from backyard toads:

toad home | toad hole | toad winter residence

Toad home

• Use an old clay pot about 20 cm in diameter.
• Make an entrance by gently knocking a semicircular section 8 cm wide x 4 cm high out of the edge of the pot. (First drill a number of holes where the opening will be and then knock it out with a hammer.)
• Place the pot upside down in a shady spot near a source of water.

Toad hole

• Dig a roughly square hole about 25 cm x 25 cm in the ground.
• Cover the floor of the hole with sand.
• Use flat stones to make sides and a ceiling. The resulting chamber should be no more than 20 cm x 20 cm.
• Use a 12 cm long section of 7.5 cm diameter pipe as an entrance leading diagonally into the hole.
• Shade the opening with a small plant.
• Check the toad hole regularly for signs of damage.

Toad winter residence

While frogs are happy to pass the winter at the bottom of a pond, toads are terrestrial hibernators: they'll dig deep into soft garden soil, beneath the frost line, to spend the long, freezing months in dormancy. To make your backyard even more amphibian friendly, dig a hibernaculum for toads.

• Excavate a hole at least 1 m square x 1 m deep.
• Fill the entire hole with soft sand.
• You can cover the surface with compost to keep the hibernaculum warmer and give overwintering toads additional protection from freezing temperatures.