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asheltiemom

Little frog on my balcony... what do I do?

asheltiemom
16 years ago

This may sound strange, and I really hope I'm posting in the right spot.

I bought a pot of flowers from Costco, and apparently it came with a little frog thrown in for free. He's been living in the flower pot for about 6 weeks. I just found this out when my flowers were overcome with what look like white flies, and so I sprayed with a Schultz bug spray. I sprayed for the 3rd time this morning, and I saw something moving in the pot on the soil. I didn't want to investigate because I was afraid something would jump out at me, so I left it.

30 minutes ago, I look outside to see a little frog jumping out of the pot, and begin to hop and wiggle and writhe around on my 2nd story apartment concrete patio (which is surrounded by a 2 foot high solid wall, so I'm pretty sure he arrived on my patio in the pot).

Now I'm worried that he's sick because I ended up spraying HIM too with bug spray. He's not moving around in a healthy fashion. What do I do?

Comments (8)

  • asheltiemom
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I felt I needed to do something, so I trapped him in a tupperware, filled another container with water, took him outside near a field, poured the water into the tupperware to rinse him off a bit, then tipped him out of the tupperware.

    I left for a few minutes, then came back, and he'd had the presence of mind to scootch on over to hide under a shrub. I felt better seeing he'd done this, but next time, I'll go get lady bugs or some other non-chemical way of getting rid of the white flies.

    Oh, I did find out, s/he's a Pacific Treefrog, a bright green little fellow. Apparently it's not unheard of for them to take up residence in flower pots.

  • PVick
    16 years ago

    How's the frog doing now? Has it recovered?

  • asheltiemom
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I'm not sure how he's doing. When I came back a second time, 15 minutes later, he'd hopped off, or climbed into the shrubs.... either way, I couldn't find him.

    By googling, I found out pesticides don't even work on white flies because it's very difficult to cover ALL of the leaves, tops & bottoms, stems, etc, in order for the pesticide to be effective. Lady bugs or the little non-stinging wasps that lay their eggs in white flies would've been more effective. I ended up throwing out the flower pot because the pesticide didn't work, but now I know to get beneficial insects the next time white flies come calling. I felt so badly about that little frog, he looked like the Geico gecko, only in frog form.... so cute!

  • jenny_in_se_pa
    16 years ago

    Wow. And I thought I had all the creatures! LOL You might consider a little water garden and you could eventually put something like that in it.

    I know for a couple years I was plagued with danged white flies (on my tomato plants) and I ended up using both the yellow sticky traps to get the adults and some Safer's insecticidal soap on the leaves. Often once you get them, it's hard to get rid of them but the sticky traps did at least help to put a dent in them.

  • luna_llena_feliz
    16 years ago

    The best non-toxic way to get rid of bugs is soapy water and wash off the plants by hand. One apartment I lived in was on the edge of a park. I often had tree toads on my patio. The dog got a hold of one once and I forgot they exude some nasty oil when they are threatened. She was making funny faces for about an hour after he hopped away.

  • gardenbug
    16 years ago

    Everytime I buy a plant now, I'm going to be staring into the pot looking for frogs. LOL

  • violetta1976
    16 years ago

    I helped some friends put ladybugs all over their rose bushes to get rid of aphids. It was fun! Too cool to see all those cute ladybugs being drawn straight towards the white spots and immediately start to eat them all up. :0)

  • luna_llena_feliz
    16 years ago

    violetta, it kind of sounds like you were playing the real life Ms. Pacman. lol

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