This weekend I decided I needed to put out more salt and minerals for the animals. In this southern heat, they need to be able to replenish both salt and water. Since we drastically downsized the number of 4-legged grass-eaters we have, a lot of things like troughs aren't all in use.
Such is the case for this trough and salt box:
The water trough is so big it's impossible for me to dump it and put fresh water in it, and it's a little out of the way, so I've been ignoring it. However, I thought I could use the salt box, so went down to check things out.
Imagine my surprise when I saw several of these in the water:
Tadpoles! It's not the clearest picture in the world, what with the trough being in shadow and tadpoles underwater, but you get the idea.
Obviously some little frog figured that was a good place to lay eggs, and guess she was right! A least some of them are surviving swimmingly!
As for the other surprising discovery, I found her when I flipped over the salt box to get the dirt out of it. . .
A Black Widow Spider and egg case. Hmmmm, I didn't find her appearance nearly as thrilling as tadpoles in the water trough. Upon reflection, I think I'll just look at them instead.
That's a tad better!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
We had a major hatch of BWSs in our garage a few years ago. After killing about 15 by hand, I decided that fog method was more appropriate. Luckily, their webs are easy to spot and stay out of. I’m so glad you didn’t get bit whilst flipping the salt dish.
Tadpoles are a delight! Be sure to put a rock in the trough for them to get up on when they start developing legs.
Wow, I think I’d got totally round the bend if I had to deal with that many BWSs!!! I’m not a big fan of ANY kind of spider inside.
Good thinking on the rock in the trough. I hadn’t thought about that!
That’s great that a frog chose your trough for it’s “tads”!
They probably keep it clean of any mosquitoes too. I ended up going to smaller troughs and having to fill them up more frequently because it was too hard to flip them to clean and refill. ICK on the BWS! We had some hatch out in our classroom when I was in 6th grade and the mom spider had strung web all along the turned over chair legs up on the tables. There were so many babies we couldn’t count them all….needless to say we didn’t hold class in there that day!!
ive never seen a bws in my life thankfully. nice tads try feeding them fish food to help there diet if there isent enouth food for them.
i love tads!!
Yes, I think smaller water containers are better. Water stays fresher. Just have to be sure to keep them filled up in this hot weather! But it is much easier to deal with dumping yucky water and cleaning them.
Tadpoles are neat! I was watching for a new batch in the big pond, and here I got surprised with some where I didn’t expect them!
The ducks have been loose all summer so I haven’t been near their pen. I needed their swimming pool for older ducklings so I went to get it. Eeeewww! The pool was empty last time I saw it. A summer’s worth of rain filled it. Since it hasn’t rained much for the last 10 days the water evaporated down to 2″ from the top. It was gross and disgusting. And it MOVED! Moved like popcorn! There were 17 young leopard frogs trapped in the pool.
Now THAT’s pretty interesting, popcorn water!
And that’s a whole bunch of little frogs.
Frogs…aren’t they one clear indication of a healthy environment? If chemical use abounds, those little beauties disappear. We’ve had the little green tree frogs spending the hot nights on our cool glass doors at night. It’s funny because you see their bellies and pads of their feet on one side of the door, on the other you get a clear look at their backs and eyes.
I really don’t mind spiders in general, but biting, deadly ones are a bit harder to be around. lol
Yeah, frogs are supposed to be a good indicator of healthy environments, lets hope we keep seeing them!
I love those little green tree frogs!