Brown frogs in the garden. ground toad

The problem of how to get rid of frogs in the cellar is faced by almost all summer residents and owners of private houses. These animals are beneficial by destroying mosquitoes and flies. But a large accumulation of reptiles in the underground can harm the crop. Toads carry pathogenic microorganisms through the products, pollute them with the products of their vital activity. If the basement is located under the house or next to it, then croaking will cause discomfort to its inhabitants. Consider the prerequisites for the appearance and ways to get rid of unwanted guests.

The basement is a dark, damp and cool room. In most cases, it contains boxes, shelves and pallets, which are excellent hiding places for amphibians. Animals enter the cellar through doors during ventilation, through cracks and through ventilation ducts. When there are puddles under the flooring, frogs lay eggs in it, from which tadpoles emerge. If no effective measures are taken, then a short time the population will reach hundreds of individuals.

Consider the possible causes of toads and how to eliminate them:

1. High humidity in storage. It is necessary to repair the drainage system, bail out the water and ventilate the room well. Uninvited guests themselves will leave him through open doors, because they will not be able to do without moisture for a long time.
2. The presence in the subfield of many things that are a shelter for adults. These are boxes, rags, old hay and uncollected garbage. After taking out all the excess, the stay of amphibians in the basement will become uncomfortable.
3. Accumulation of insects. They flock to the smell of food, making a loud noise that attracts predators. Flies and mosquitoes can be quickly driven out using special spirals and plates. Deprived of food, the toads will leave the cellar. Installing mosquito nets on doors and ventilation will prevent this problem in the future.
4. Neighborhood with a reservoir. Amphibians constantly migrate in search of food and breeding partners. They may end up in the subfield by accident. At the call of one individual, others come, which leads to their accumulation. If you enclose the room with a low fence made of metal mesh, you can forget about their existence for a long time.

Having dealt with the prerequisites of the problem, we will consider options for solving it.

Help of natural enemies

The first and one of the simplest solutions to the question of how to get frogs out of the cellar is to involve their natural enemies in the fight.

These are:

1. Snake. Amphibians experience panic fear in front of them, quickly moving away to a safe distance. It is enough to catch and put one representative of this species in the underground so that all reptiles leave the premises. There is one difficulty - to find and catch the snake. To do this, you can use a fish tank.
2. Cats. They have a natural instinct to kill. A pet can kill the entire colony that has settled in the basement in a few hours. The method is not humane, but effective. Amphibian exterminators are always nearby, they do not need to be caught, wasting time and risking health.
3. Hedgehogs. They are slower than other animals, but the fear factor is sufficient. Animal banishes uninvited guests just by your presence. Difficulties may also arise with the search and capture of hedgehogs, since this animal is nocturnal and leads a secretive lifestyle.

If attracting predators is not possible or desirable, other pest control methods are chosen.

The use of nets and traps

A humane way to get rid of toads is to catch them with a butterfly net. You can use it in a spacious bright room with a minimum amount of furniture. Pre-floors and shelves are freed from all things. Then the floors are covered with a film or thick cloth. Reptiles are captured, placed in a bucket of water, and released into the nearest body of water. This option is difficult, time-consuming, but most of all acceptable by nature lovers.

A small population can be bred using closed-type mousetraps, where the captured individual remains alive. Insects or small fragments of food are used as bait. Mousetraps need to be periodically checked, released and placed again. Open type devices kill amphibians. The owners of the basement will have to solve an unpleasant issue with the disposal of animal corpses.

Traps can be made independently from cardboard boxes. They are equipped with valves or labyrinths. Cleaning the box from the catch is simple - just turn the container over and remove the lid from it.

After capturing and removing adults, the subfloor should be checked for tadpoles. Cans, pots, bottles and other containers are checked. The liquid from them merges into puddles, swamps or streams.

Chemical Methods

Insecticides are divided into deterrent, lethal and paralyzing the reproductive system. AT last case amphibians remain alive, but lose their ability to reproduce. The choice in each case is made individually, taking into account the scale and nature of the problem. Most household drugs are safe for humans. They are sold in the form of granules, powder, gel and aerosols. High efficiency was shown by means against snakes and used in agriculture herbicides.

1. Before processing the room, remove from it all products that are not packed tightly. Even in small quantities, the poison is dangerous to health.
2. When applying drugs, use rubber gloves, a respirator and tight-fitting goggles.
3. Poison agents must be used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. An insufficient dose may not bring the desired effect.
4. It is better to apply and pour preparations around the perimeter of the subfloor, next to the ventilation openings and the front door. Chests and baskets in which food will be stored should not be treated with preparations.
5. After the end of the procedure, it is necessary to carry out a wet cleaning of all surfaces, ventilate the room well.

If sanitization was carried out with lethal drugs, it is necessary to carefully examine all places in the basement, without missing a single dead animal. Otherwise, the smell of decay will make the room unsuitable for its intended use for a long time.

Folk ways

Folk methods do not harm reptiles, but create unbearable conditions for them to continue to stay in the cellar.

To the most effective means relate:

1. Coarse edible salt. This is a safe substance that must be poured over all horizontal surfaces. Wet areas can be covered with plastic wrap or oilcloth. Salt burns the mucous membranes of frogs. Not finding a comfortable place for themselves, they will be forced to leave the basement. The advantage of this method is that the salt does not need to be removed after reaching the goal. It is an antiseptic and serves as a preventative barrier against new guests.
2. Lemon acid. It works similarly to salt, but much stronger. Therefore, the acid is used in low concentrations so as not to kill the animals.
3. Coffee. It is used in the form of thick and solution. Falls asleep on floors and shelves, splashes on open ground and in puddles. Caffeine causes deterioration and increased heart rate in reptiles. Reflexively, they tend to get away from the source of danger.

Using folk remedies, they should not be allowed to get on the skin of frogs, because this can cause paralysis and cardiac arrest in them. The doors to the cellar must be kept open so that the animals can get out.

Many owners of private houses do not know how to get rid of frogs in the cellar. Amphibians appear in conditions high humidity, which becomes a critical problem during storage obtained on personal plot harvest or canned food that was harvested over the summer.

Why did frogs appear in the cellar

First of all, you need to establish the cause of the appearance of frogs, otherwise all the measures taken will be only temporary.

The main preventive measure is the correct mode of operation of the cellar. In the summer, when there is no need to place products and blanks there, the basement should be completely emptied, cleaned, thoroughly dried and ventilated. In addition to humidity, there are other reasons for the appearance of amphibians:

1. The presence of flies and mosquitoes. Insects that flock to favorable conditions become easy prey. Amphibians also look for places with a constant presence of food. If you get rid of the first ones, the frogs will not stay in the cellar.
2. Open containers with liquid. Over time, the water evaporates and saturates the air. It attracts frogs and toads.
3. Accumulations of garbage. They become a refuge not only for amphibians, but also for rodents.
4. open reservoirs. Sources can be nearby rivers, canals, lakes and swamps. These are the natural habitats of frogs that move to more adapted dwellings when danger arises.
5. Basement leak. Old, dilapidated walls have many holes and cracks. The cellar room becomes a shelter from bad weather and other adverse factors.

Getting rid of the frogs

Before you start fighting amphibians, you need to understand whether they are causing harm. Often the invasion of frogs provokes the appearance of insects and slugs in basements. From frogs, you will get the help of natural enemies in the destruction of these pests. Consider various methods it is worth breeding frogs if there are no such pests or if the spread of amphibians is widespread.

Before choosing ways to get rid of toads or frogs, you need to eliminate the root cause of their appearance. Often after that they themselves leave the cellar. It is better to take these measures in the spring: then you will not need to make additional efforts. There is a high probability that the frogs will disappear over the summer. It is important to assess the number of amphibians and the potential damage they can cause, and choose whether to get rid of the toads or leave everything until the fall.

Considering the means of struggle, you need to find a middle ground between their effectiveness and safety. This applies to both chemicals as well as mechanical devices. Pets and children may be poisoned or injured.

Nets and traps for frogs

This method does not require killing amphibians, but allows you to significantly reduce their number or get rid of them completely.

Nets have proven themselves well in open space conditions. Traps are useful in cases where it is impossible to take out the contents of the basement. They are installed outdoors. A prerequisite is the presence of bait.

Nets and traps can be made with your own hands from available materials or you can use a regular net. Perfect fishing or children's for butterflies. To collect caught frogs, you will need a tall container with a narrow neck or a resealable lid. So the pests will not jump back.

Mousetraps are suitable as traps. An excellent bait will be food waste or special pellets that are used for mice and rats.

Good homemade traps for fighting frogs in the basement can be made from a fishing net. It is enough to pull it diagonally from the floor to the ceiling. From the side opposite to the accumulation of toads, fix the light bulb. It will attract insects, which will become a natural bait for amphibians. Instead of a grid, a tall barrel with a light source located above it is suitable. Frogs will jump after mosquitoes and fall into a container from which they cannot get out.

Chemicals

The method is associated with the use of potent poisons. Such drastic measures to remove amphibians from the cellar are best left for last. If there are animals or children, you will have to additionally protect the cellar, since chemicals on the skin or in the digestive system can lead to burns or poisoning.

Before buying, you need to carefully read the instructions for the remedy against frogs and pay attention to the following nuances:

• degree of danger to others;
• the need to take out the contents of the cellar;
• time of action;
• mode of application;
• residual effect.

Chemical treatments are more often used if other measures fail to get rid of the frogs. In this case, preference should be given powerful drugs. They will require the removal of all contents from the cellar. Be sure to look at the expiration date of the composition and after its expiration, ventilate the room well. The poison must be spread out in areas where amphibians are most likely to move: at the entrances to the basement, at burrows, cracks in walls and floors.

If not special means to control frogs, the use of universal insecticides and anti-snake formulations is allowed.

Folk ways of fighting

Before starting to use poisons, many people think about how to remove frogs in a safe way. Often the effect is not worse. Thanks to this, the toad will not die, but will simply get scared and run away. Well proven in practice:

1. Lemon acid. It is necessary to prepare a strong solution: 400 g of powder per 4 liters of water. They spray all horizontal surfaces. It irritates the skin, causes burns, and at high concentrations, the death of frogs.
2. Salt. It is enough to scatter it on the floor. When in contact with crystals, frogs will get burned. The remedy rarely leads to lethal outcome, but forces the frogs to change their habitat. In addition, salt absorbs moisture well. This will help dry the room further.
3. Very strong coffee. Operates in a similar way. Broth sprayed surfaces. Allowed use coffee grounds, it is laid out at the entrances and slots.

Main advantage folk remedies is safety for vegetables and preparations. It is better to take out the contents of the basement, but if this is not possible, the listed compositions will become the only means of dealing with amphibians.

Preventive measures for the appearance of frogs in the cellar

To minimize the likelihood of amphibians in the basement and other garden utility rooms, two main rules must be followed:

1. Maintain cleanliness. Do not allow storage of household and food waste, clutter inventory and equipment.
2. Monitor humidity levels. Basements must be equipped with supply and exhaust ventilation. Spilled liquid and water on the floor should be cleaned up immediately, preventing it from evaporating. Seal all containers tightly so as not to attract frogs with moisture.

The situation is complicated by the location of reservoirs and channels on the site, in this case, the presence of excess moisture cannot be removed. With excess moisture, you will even have to work on sealing the entire structure. The topic of waterproofing is especially important with a high level of groundwater in the country. Depending on the technical design, the following materials are used for the enclosing elements of the cellar:

• roll waterproofing;
• bituminous mastics;
• deep penetration injections.

With their help, the contour of the cellar is completely sealed. Any ingress of moisture into the basement is excluded. Thanks to this, an unfavorable environment for the existence of frogs is maintained.

Conclusion

Frogs in the cellar, basement and other utility rooms do not always have to be fought. They eat slugs, protecting the territory from these more dangerous pests.

Before proceeding with the elimination of frogs, you need to get rid of the cause of their appearance. It is highly likely that after that the amphibians themselves will leave the territory. The complexity of the work can be different: from cleaning to waterproofing.

If preventive measures do not help, they begin to exterminate the frogs with specialized preparations. You should start with safer folk methods. They cause burns in earth dwellers and force them to leave the cellar. If this does not help, poisons are used.

Few people love amphibians: it’s good if a frog or a toad is simply bypassed, but often they try to harm the animal! Unmotivated aggression on the part of a person can only be explained by his narrow-mindedness - it is strange to want to offend such an animal as a ground toad, if you know at least a little about him.

An amphibian with a bad reputation

Dislike for toads goes through generations. Even in the Middle Ages, these animals were treated with special contempt and fear. In all civilized countries, it was believed that touching a toad is certain death. Moreover, the poison secreted by the toad through the skin allegedly acted as the cause of death.

Also, her deceit and danger to our ancestors was that a person could become a kind of incubator for them. They explained it this way: with bad or untreated water, you can drink toad eggs, and already in the stomach they will hatch safely and begin active life. For modern man it sounds crazy, but before this condition was very actively treated.

Science has proven that a toad poses no danger to humans. Yes, in the event of an extreme situation for itself, the ground toad can release a special protective secret from the skin, but it rather plays a deterrent role and will not cause any harm.

Toad or frog: how to distinguish?

For many people, it is a fundamental question: who exactly did they meet, is it a frog or a toad? And although neither one nor the other carries a danger, it is not difficult to distinguish between them.

• The toad is more different large size: An adult can reach 15 centimeters in length.
• The body of the toad is loose, the contours are indistinctly outlined. The head is rather low pressed to the ground.
• The skin can have a shade from earthy gray to dark green. It has a large number of warts, tubercles and glands.
• A toad, unlike a frog, cannot jump. She confidently goes to the goal.

Most often, people meet amphibians on vacation near water bodies or in yards where there is a constant source of moisture. So, the earthen toad usually feels great in the garden - it is there that summer residents often meet her and are unreasonably frightened.

Life and habits

Like other amphibians, toads hibernate during the season when temperatures drop. So that no one disturbs the process of waiting for heat, they burrow into the soil to a depth of 10 centimeters, hide under the rhizomes of trees and stumps, and can even use abandoned rodent burrows.

AT warm time Toads are active at night. At this time, they go out in search of food: you can often meet a toad on a summer evening in places lit by lanterns.

Quite interesting is the answer to the question of how earth toads breed. First of all, these animals cannot do this without water: it is in the reservoir that they spawn.

Toad caviar has a special appearance - it resembles a long thin cord. Such cords lie on the bottom of the reservoir or can be braided around algae. Sometimes the length of such cords reaches 5-8 meters!

The tadpoles that emerge from the eggs do not surface for the first time. They live at the bottom, eating small algae and what is left of dying animals and plants. Tadpoles develop quite quickly, and after 50-60 days a full-fledged green or ground toad may appear on land.

Fear or help for the gardener?

What to do if you suddenly met an earthen toad in the garden or in the garden? Is it possible to touch it, will it spoil the crop? Or maybe he will bring friends and there will be nowhere to hide from the toads?

In order to answer the question of what toads do in a garden or vegetable garden, you need to find out what earthen toads eat.

Insects are their main food. They do not disdain caterpillars, various centipedes, as well as snails. A toad cannot be frightened by bright colors or unusual view insect. Seeing the object for breakfast, the toad waddles towards its goal.

What is the benefit for the gardener? The most direct! Ground toad is a great organic way to control pests and crop eaters. She is such a nurse of crops, who goes out in the evenings to bypass the entrusted territory.

Therefore, having met this amphibian on your way or in the garden, you do not need to become like medieval Europeans and run for an “anti-toad” antidote or pesticide. Do not hit the animal and do not stomp on it: give way, because it goes about its important business, performing its natural function. BUT side effect from it - the benefit to man.

Fb.ru

ground toad

People's rumors are unfair to them. From time immemorial, man has been stubbornly spreading rumors that a toad is a despicable and even dangerous creature, that one touch to it is fraught with at least a wart and, at a maximum, death. Meanwhile, it is difficult to find an amphibian on Earth that would bring such obvious benefits to humans as the ground toad.

Description of the ground toad

Due to the resemblance to a frog, the toad is constantly confused with it. Moreover, in the languages ​​of some peoples, representatives of these two different families are designated by one word, without making dictionary differences.

It's a shame, however! After all, the toad, which is also a real toad, belongs to the class of amphibians, the order of anurans, the family of toads and has more than 500 varieties. All of them are divided into 40 genera, a third of which can be found in the European territory.

Appearance

The toad is arranged as it should be for an anurous amphibian - a loose body, without clear contours, flattened head, bulging eyes, webbing between the toes, earthy skin, uneven, covered in tubercles and warts. Not a very pretty creature!

Perhaps because of this, a person has been disliked by the baby since ancient times? However, not all toads are babies. As an adult, they can reach up to 53 cm in length and weigh up to 1 kilogram. Toads have fairly short limbs for such a massive body. For this reason, toads cannot jump like frogs and are poor swimmers.

To the distinctive features ground toads relate:

• absence of teeth in the upper jaw;
• the presence of tubercles on the paws of males - "marriage corns", with the help of which they are held on the body of the female during mating;
• large parotid glands called parotid glands.

Important! These glands are needed by the toad in order to produce a secret that moisturizes the skin. In some species of ground toads, this secret contains poisonous substances, as a defensive weapon. For a person, this secret does not pose a threat to life. It can only cause stinging. The only exception is one fatal poisonous toad on Earth, yes.

Of the 40 genera of ground toads, on the territory of Russia and former countries CIS can be found 6 varieties. All of them are from the genus bufo.

• Gray ground toad, she is also an ordinary toad. A large species in the family (7x12 cm) and one of the most common. Despite the name, it can be not only gray, but also olive, brown. The back is darker than the abdomen. In length, this toad is one and a half times less than in width. In Russia, the gray ground toad can be found on Far East and in Central Asia. She loves not very damp places, preferring the forest-steppe area.
• The Far Eastern toad, on the contrary, prefers wet places- water meadows, river floodplains. characteristic feature of this species is the color - bright black-brown spots on a gray back. Also, in Far Eastern toads, the female is always larger than the male. These toads can be found in the Far East, Sakhalin, Transbaikalia, Korea and China.
• The green ground toad got its name from the color of the back - dark green spots on an olive background. Such natural camouflage serves her well, making her practically invisible where she prefers to live - in meadows and river floodplains. The secret of the green toad is toxic to natural enemies, not dangerous to humans. It is found in the Volga region, Asia, Europe and North Africa.
• The Caucasian toad competes in size with the common toad. It is 12.5 cm long. Adults are usually brown or dark gray, but the "young" is orange in color, which subsequently darkens. The Caucasian toad lives, as the name implies, in the Caucasus. Likes forests and mountains. Sometimes they can be found in caves, damp and damp.
• The reed toad, it is also smelly. Looks like a green toad. The same large - up to 8 cm long, also loves reeds and wet, swampy places. Distinctive feature of this species is the developed throat resonator in the male, which he puts into motion during the mating season. You can hear and see these toads in Belarus, in the west of Ukraine and in the Kaliningrad region.
• The Mongolian toad has a large body, up to 9 cm long, dotted with warts with thorns. Color can vary from gray to beige and brown. Against this background, spots of different geometric shapes. In addition to Mongolia, these toads have been seen in Siberia, the Far East, Western Ukraine and the Baltic states.

It is interesting! The largest toad in the world is the Bloomberg toad. The giantess has a body length of 25 cm and is completely harmless. Its solitary individuals can still be found in the tropics of Colombia and Ecuador, but only solitary, since this species is on the verge of extinction.

The smallest toad in the world is the Kihansi spatter toad, the size of a 5-ruble coin: 1.9 cm (for a male) and 2.9 cm (for a female) in length. As well as the largest toad, it is on the verge of extinction. Previously, it could be found in Tanzania, in a very limited area near the waterfall, in the area of ​​​​the Kihansi River.

Lifestyle

Ground toads lead a leisurely lifestyle during the day and are "active" at night. At dusk, they go hunting. They come out, clumsy and clumsy, they do not jump like frogs, but “walk at a pace”. On a jump, single, they can be provoked by danger. But even in this case, they prefer to arch their backs with a hump, depicting an extreme degree of defense from the enemy. Frogs don't do that.

Despite their clumsiness and slowness, ground toads are good hunters. Help their voracity and natural feature throw out the tongue at lightning speed, grabbing an insect on the fly. Frogs don't do that. With the onset of cold weather, toads fall into suspended animation, having previously found a secluded place for themselves - under the roots of trees, in abandoned burrows of small rodents, under fallen leaves. Toads live alone. They gather in groups only to leave offspring, and then “scatter” again, returning to their favorite bump.

How long does a ground toad live

The average life span of earth toads is 25-35 years. There are cases when some of their representatives lived to be 40 years old.

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Range, habitats

For habitat, earth toads choose wet places, but not necessarily near water bodies. They only need water to spawn.

Important! Due to the diversity of species, the range of presence of ground toads is practically ubiquitous. These amphibians are found on all continents. The only exception, for obvious reasons, is Antarctica.

The rest of the time, toads prefer damp cellars, freshly dug, still wet ground, crevices in the mountains, low thickets of grass in floodplains, rainforests. But! There are species that live both in the steppes and in arid deserts.

And how to deal with them.

In many ways, it looks like a mole, although it is larger in size, but it leaves traces after itself about the same. The main difference is that they are voracious rodents, and the fight against them can be painful and long.

Mole rats are usually no more than 32 cm in length. They have very short legs and gray fur. The tail is not visible, as it is too small, the eyes are reduced and hidden under the skin.

The widest part of the mole rat's body is the head. If you look at the animal from above, then it resembles. The mole rat's front teeth are long and protrude forward.

Such a pest especially loves and, both and and suffer from it. It is capable of damaging others, such as or.

Did you know? One mole rat stores on average up to 13 kg of various crops.

Usually the animal drags into its mink, gnaws off the tops and leaves the lower part as a reserve for the winter.

The fight against mole rats due to their underground lifestyle is not always effective, but still possible. It should only be remembered that there is a giant mole rat listed in the Red Book.

Usually, when the whole garden is in holes, the summer resident does not particularly care who did it, just to exterminate the pest. The giant mole rat is distributed mainly in sandy and clay near water bodies.

They can be found in the Caucasus, in Dagestan, near the rivers Terek, Sulak and Kuma. It may turn out that just such a rare animal lives on your site.

Therefore, it is better to try to determine in advance whether an ordinary mole rat has wound up with you or not. The giant mole rat, of course, is better to catch or scare away.

There are several ways to get rid of the pest.

First way- setting traps. This method is not very effective, because mole rats are smart and cunning. It is best to get mole traps. When fighting a mole rat, you can be cunning.

The animals do not like open areas and the wind, so you can open their hole and make another smaller one in the neighborhood. Set a trap in the hole and cover it with something. Choosing from two options, the mole rat, of course, will choose the more protected one and will surely fall into a trap.

Second way- flood holes. The mole rat is quite helpless against water. But if the ground on yours is sandy and absorbs moisture well, then most likely this method of fighting will not suit you.

Important! For pest control, you can simply call a specialist. This, of course, can cost a pretty penny, and the final result will depend on the qualifications and honesty of the specialist himself.

Third way- use poisons and chemicals. But it also might not work. If there is enough food for a mole rat in your area, then he will not even look in the direction of the poison.
Fourth way and one of the most effective - noise and ultrasound. Blind rats hate noise. Therefore, the installation of noise repellers will not be superfluous. One of the surest ways is a vibration-sound repeller.

The animal is similar to a vole, but has two distinct differences - much more a long tail and an elongated muzzle. There are two types of shrews: shrew and shrew.

The shrew reaches a size of no more than 7 cm and has a gray color, but most often a shrew with brown hair and no more than 5 cm in length appears in the garden.

Don't be deceived about appearance animal, because just how cute it looks in the photo does not mean that the damage from it will be minimal. In just a couple of days, the entire area can be dug up, and the lawn will be full of bumps.

The shrew has a high metabolism, so she is constantly looking for food, as a result of which furrows are obtained, as in the photo of her hole.

The baby feeds on insects, and it would be quite useful if the harm that it causes was not many times more useful. During the day, she destroys insect pests several times her own body weight.

The furrows it creates help the earth get oxygenated. But the fact is that there is usually practically nothing to grow on such land - the shrew gnaws through the roots and plants that stand in its way.

Important!The shrew produces about 4 litters per season, so if it is not dealt with, things can take a disastrous turn.

Shrew minks are usually very, very small. So, most likely, first of all, you will find the shrew itself. After that, you should look for a nest.

The first way to deal with shrews- poisons and chemicals. Against animals, products such as Anti-Rodent are used. It is important to remember that poison can be dangerous for households or children, so be careful and read the instructions for use.

Second way- flood mink shrews. In this case, it is better to flood any hole that causes suspicion.

Third way- use objects with a sharp, unpleasant odor. Shrews have a very delicate sense of smell, so they do not tolerate strong-smelling things. Put rotten fish or eggs in minks. The shrew will not tolerate such aromas and will leave the mink.

Using traps against shrews is ineffective. And any of the above methods does not give a 100% guarantee. Shrews can easily come back to your site, so you should be very careful.

Looks like a normal mouse. Body length - no more than 13 cm. The color is brown, and gray on the tummy. Unlike a shrew, a vole will feed on your crop.

She likes roots, shoots, leaves and sometimes even seeds of some plants (for example, beans). She is even more prolific than a shrew - a field mouse is capable of reproducing offspring up to 7 times, 5, and sometimes 12 babies per season.

Below is a photo of field mouse minks. Pests usually live in groups, dig branched, complex passages. But this happens at a shallow depth - from 15 to 35 cm.
Prevention of the appearance of voles on your site will be regular disposal and timely harvesting. But alas, even observing all the precautions cannot guarantee that your vole will not start.

So what do you do if field mice already wound up in your area?

Important!In general, the main methods of rodent control on suburban area approximately the same for the shrew, and for the vole, and for the rat.

First way- get a good, not lazy cat. Of course, if you take a kitten, things will not go in the fastest way, but this method can scare off voles for a long time and secure your site.

Traps are not the smartest solution, as they are effective with only a few pests, and the number of voles tends to increase rapidly.

Second way- poisoned baits and poisonous substances. For example, you can make lumps of dry gypsum and flour or other treats. Voles like to drink after eating, and gypsum frozen in the stomach will lead to immediate death. You can flood the burrows, treat them with poisonous gases, or use an acute poison, after which the animal will die.

Voles are smart, so if you choose a poison, it's better to choose one that the rodent needs to eat once, rather than substances with a cumulative effect.
Third method- smells and noises. A variety of ultrasonic repellers work effectively. Also, voles do not tolerate odors and do not really like the aromas of essential oils. Therefore, you can put leaves in their hole, even or a piece of cloth soaked essential oil or, for example, kerosene.

Fourth way- solution, 3%. It must be poured into the mink (about 1 cup) and trampled on top. Ammonia is detrimental to voles.

Kravchik (snow beetle)

Representative of the dung beetle family. Only now it differs from its relatives in that it eats herbivorous food. He was nicknamed the snow beetle due to the fact that with his powerful jaws he literally cuts the stems of plants.

The beetle is black, up to 2.5 cm long. His head is large and very conspicuous, for which he is also called a golovach.

Kravchiki dig deep minks for themselves, quite complex and large. This happens mainly in early spring, during the mating season. Then the female starts building a hole. The common, not yet branched mink sometimes reaches up to 70 cm in depth.

Did you know?Kravchiks are real architects. Their burrows even have rainwater outlets.

Then the female lays one egg at a time in specially prepared cells and proceeds to a stage that is very dangerous for the future harvest. Kravchiki harvest plants, cutting and shoots.

From greenery and their secretions, they form enough cubes to fill the hole. The larvae of the beetle will subsequently feed on this mass. The next year, the number of kravchik will increase, and all the cycles will be repeated again and again.

Kravchiki damage corn very much, and, of course,. These beetles are so carefully stocked with food for their children that they are able to cut off literally all shoots.

To get rid of those who live deep in the earth, chemicals are ineffective. As a preventive measure, a thorough and deep (60–70 cm) site can be advised. Such a depth should be enough for the holes to freeze through during the winter. The main way to get rid of the snow beetle is to harvest it by hand.

You can loosen the ground, filling up the entrances of the holes, you can dig in the area along the perimeter, putting grass treated with special substances - pyrethroids into the grooves formed, but in any case, you will have to collect pests and monitor their appearance.

Another effective method - the most odorous and cheapest vegetable oil, diluted with water, pour into the mink, and after the burrows crawl out, collect and destroy them.

Rats are very smart. And also, like any, they are dangerous because they are carriers of many diseases. In the country, you can most often meet a gray rat. People call her pasyuk.

It is quite large, it can reach 27 cm in size. Pasyuk is omnivorous, swims well. It is he who digs holes in the gardens, not particularly deep, but branched.

The rat is fertile - in a year it can give birth to 3 broods up to 10 cubs in each. This large pest will also fight with a large enemy, if there is no place left to run. Pasyuk can even attack a person.
she goes to the gardens.

The earth with eggs must be removed from the garden - pour into a bucket or other container. And if you stumbled upon an adult bear, then it also needs to be destroyed - crushed or chopped.

Second way- lure with manure. In the spring, you can lay out heaps in the garden - the bears will consider it good place for their nests. Periodically check the piles, and if you find eggs or an adult, destroy them.

For wintering, the bear will also prefer compost. At the end of autumn, dig a few holes in which you need to put manure. When frosts come - destroy and scatter manure from the holes. Medvedka simply does not have time to hide in the ground and freezes.

If the bear has already started, and before late autumn can simply destroy your garden, then you can display it as follows.

First way - detergents. Water mixed with powder or laundry soap, poured into the holes for the cabbage, will either kill it or make it crawl out. Then it can be destroyed manually.

Second way- poisons and chemicals. Preparations such as "Thunder" or can simply be poured into minks, or they can be mixed with wheat porridge and spread out in places that most need protection, or next to minks. You can also use kerosene against cabbages. Third way- traps. Kapustyanka are very fond of beer and. A jar with a small amount of beer (up to 100 g) must be buried at an angle in the ground, leaving a neck at the top.

The neck must be tied with gauze. Medvedka will gnaw through the fabric and fall into the jar, and she will not be able to get out of there. When the jar is full, pests can be very easily destroyed.

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ground toad refers to tailless amphibians. This is a squad. The class is simply called amphibians. The detachment has a family of toads. It includes over 40 genera. They have 579 species. They are called earthen, because with the onset of cold weather and during the day during the hot period, they hide in minks, burrow between roots and stones.

Description and features of the ground toad

Ground toad in the photo and in reality is larger than a frog, has drier, rougher skin. It is covered with a semblance of warts, outgrowths. Frogs do not have this, as well as the ability to catch insects at lightning speed.

The toad picks them up with its tongue. On the other hand, frogs have elongated hind legs. This allows the animals to jump. Toads lack this ability. Additional differences from frogs are:

• loose body without clear contours
• head down to the ground
• an abundance of glands on the back, which often produce poison
• dark skin with an earthy tone
• missing teeth in the upper jaw

Ground toads have developed sexual dimorphism. Males are much smaller than females and have calloused first toes on their front paws. It helps determine the sex of the ground toad.

Calluses on the paws of male ground toads are overgrown skin glands. They help to stay on the partner's back during mating. Hence the embracing and grasping reflexes developed in males.

The ear glands are also enlarged in earthen toads. This applies to both genders. The ear glands are called parotids.

The sizes of toads reach 30 centimeters in length. In this case, the weight of an individual can be 2.3 kilograms. There are also miniature representatives of the detachment about 3 centimeters long.

Lifestyle and habitat

Short-legged and heavy-bodied toads slowly roll over. In moments of danger, amphibians arch their backs. This visually makes the toads bigger, scaring off offenders. The frogs just jump away from the latter.

Toads are sometimes capable of a single jump, but they make it if the “trick” with arching the back has not worked.

Having a rougher, keratinized skin than that of frogs, toads can stay away from water bodies for a long time. There is no need for constant moistening of the covers. More precisely, parotids take over this function. They produce a moisturizing secret.

The life of the ground toad is divided into phases of rest and activity, not only day and night. The last one is wake time. Life is also divided into a period of heat and cold. By winter, toads burrow into the ground to a depth of about 10 centimeters. There, animals fall into anabiosis, slowing down vital processes.

Toads can burrow in deserts, meadows, forests. The main condition is the presence of a nearby reservoir. It's not about moistening the integuments of toads. They need water to reproduce. Caviar is laid in swamps and lakes.

During the mating season earth toad sound it is similar to quacking. Frightened amphibians can squeak piercingly. The croaking of frogs, typical of frogs, is rare and in a lower, throaty tone. The croaking of frogs, typical of frogs, is rare and in a lower, throaty tone.

Types of ground toads

Of the almost 600 species of ground toads, 6 live in Russia. The list opens with an ordinary one. It is also called gray. The abdomen of an amphibian is highlighted. The back of the toad is dark grey.

The length of an ordinary toad does not exceed 7 centimeters. Body width reaches 12. You can see the animal in Central Asia and the Far East.

In addition to the common ground toad in the list Russian species:

1. Far Eastern. She has orange eyes, just like the grey. However, the color of the Far Eastern toad is variegated. On a whitish background there are spots of brick tone and black marks. Far Eastern toads inhabit water meadows and moist, shady forests.

There are many of them on Sakhalin, along the eastern coast of Russia. Outside its borders, the species is distributed in China, Korea.

2. Green. She is also spotted, but the markings are green and smaller than those of the Far East. The drawing looks delicate. The background is light grey. Orange dots are also scattered along the back. The coloring is like a camouflage print.

There is a green toad in central Russia in flood meadows and marshy areas.

3. Mongolian. This toad is grey-olive. Greenish spots. They are multi-sized. The abdomen is light. Male warts are spiny. Skin outgrowths of females are smooth. Representatives of the species live in the western part of the country.

4. Caucasian. It is brown and larger than other Russian ground toads, reaching a length of 13 centimeters. From the name, the habitat of amphibians is clear. In the mountains of the Caucasus, toads gravitate towards damp caves.

5. Reed. Similar to green, but smaller. The color of the toad's spots is brighter. Instead of orange dots on the back - brown. Rock toads are on the verge of extinction. With luck, representatives of the species can be found in the Kaliningrad region.

Some frogs are added to the true ground toads. In about half of the languages, no distinction is made between concepts. So, the African black rain frog is both black ground toad. The corners of her mouth are turned down. Because of this, the animal seems sad. The body of an amphibian is always swollen.

True toads outside of Russia include, for example, American cone-headed and cricket. The last yellow-green. This is the main tone. The pattern is brown-black. The belly of the cricket toad is cream and the neck is white in females and black in males.

The cone-headed toad is 3 times larger than the cricket toad, reaching a length of 11 centimeters. The name of the species is due to the prominent furrows near the eyes. Outgrowths are located longitudinally. Representatives of the species are colored differently, but the warts on the body are always lighter or darker than the main tone.

Outside of Russia, the largest toad in the world, the blomberg, also lives. Representatives of the species are found in Colombia, on the territory of Ecuador. There toads reach 30 centimeters in length. The underside of the body of the animal is pinkish-white, and the top is painted in grassy green.

Blomberg's antipode is the kihansi archer. The body length of this toad does not exceed 2 centimeters. This is the male limit. Saki is an inch bigger. However, there are few toads themselves. Animals live within Tanzania. There is a Kihansi waterfall. Amphibians are named after him. They historically live on 2 hectares at the foot of the waterfall.

At the end of the chapter, let's mention the toad aha. She is the most poisonous member of the family. In terms of size, large agi are only 2-4 centimeters inferior to blombergs. Toad venom is produced by glands throughout the body. The largest are on the head.

Poison shoots towards the offender. The toxin seeps through the skin. Therefore, it is dangerous to hold an agu in your hands. Predators that bite an amphibian die within a few minutes. The poison blocks the heart.

Outwardly, yeah, it is distinguished by the presence of prickly warts on the back, limbs. The animal also has more keratinized skin than other toads. The upper eyelid of the aga is bordered by a special semicircular ledge. The color of the toad is gray-brown with dark spots on top. The markings are larger on the back and smaller on the underside of the body.

Animal nutrition

What does the ground toad eat partly depends on where it lives. Summarizes the diet 100 percent protein base. Toads do not eat plant foods. Predation is limited to eating and insects.

The exception is the aga diet. Due to the poison, the amphibian also manages to infect small birds, rodents, and reptiles.

In the vastness of Russia, toads eat mainly fillies, ants, earwigs, slugs, caterpillars, click beetles,. Most on the list are pests. That's why ground toad in the garden or in farmland is useful.

However, "with open arms" amphibians are rarely met there. The thing is folk beliefs. Some believe that they adopt her warts at the moment of touching the animal. Others believe that frogs represent the forces of darkness. Still others associate the heroine of the article with death.

In fairness, we note that there are positive interpretations of the image of the earthen toad. In it, for example, is a symbol of wealth. The Celtic peoples call the toad the lord of the earth.

Reproduction and lifespan

The answer to the question how do earth toads reproduce in Russia, unambiguously, - by external fertilization. The egg is released outside the body. There the male fertilizes. Toad eggs are their eggs. Her females lay in a reservoir. The males fertilize the eggs there.

Toads choose puddles, ponds, ditches, and river backwaters as reservoirs for spawning. Outside of Russia there are species that lay their eggs in rapids. Tadpoles in this case are equipped with suckers. They are located on the abdomen. With the help of suckers, tadpoles are fixed on algae, bottom stones, snags.

Abroad, there are also ground toads that lay their eggs outside water bodies. Representatives Philippine species The eggs are located in the axils of tree leaves. Toads choose greenery at a height of several meters.

Exceptions among toads are also those using the cycle of internal fertilization. These are viviparous species. Their eggs develop in dilated oviducts. Interestingly, all viviparous toads are miniature, not exceeding 3 centimeters in length.

How long do ground toads live also depends on the type. The majority limit is 25 years, with a minimum of 5 years. However, representatives large species lived up to 36 years of age.

How to get rid of ground toad

Feeding on insects, toads do not disdain sharp-smelling ones and are not afraid of contrastingly colored ones. Birds of prey ignore them. Therefore, there are ground toad benefit. Harm or Amphibians do not cause damage to the garden. But for the sake of the benefits, many types of toads were settled around the planet.

So yeah, for example, got into and on Hawaiian Islands. At the last settlers, they were released into the fields with reeds. The toads quickly destroyed the pests, preserving the crop crop.

Despite the benefits of the heroine of the article, many people think how to get rid of ground toad. It's about beliefs, stereotypes and just disgust for amphibians. Among the methods of exterminating toads are:

• keeping poultry that will eat amphibians
• cleaning the area from fallen leaves, boards, bark and other places where toads can hide
• periodic mowing of grass needed by toads for shading and shelter

The only thing that, in fact, toads harm gardens is burrows. Making them for shelter, amphibians can touch the roots of plants. Some gardeners complain that their cucumbers and tomatoes literally fall through. However, for such a total, there should be a lot of toads. Often, only a few individuals live in one area.