Toad turds?!

Okay, this may sound crazy, but has anyone heard of toads leaving relatively huge turds everywhere? I've always read that it's great to have a lot of toads and frogs around because they keep down insect populations. I have scores of rather large toads that come out just after dusk and seem to be everywhere after dark. Just this summer we've noticed droppings all around our porch, driveway by the barn (especially under the dusk to dawn light) and garage as well as all around our pool area. These droppings are far too large for any rodents and, besides, our German Shepherds don't take too kindly to mice and such.

A neighbor, yeah, my crazy farmer neighbor, was by this week for the 4th and said that he sees that I have "toad turds" everywhere. I told him that we had no idea what was leaving the nice little gifts every night but we didn't think it was the toads because they are so large. He assured me that toads have, um, rather large anal ports and that they were toad turds. It's pretty nasty, but I don't want to kill off the frogs and toads. Has anybody ever hear of such?

Take a picture, lets see .................

Yeah, I didn't do that just yet for obvious reasons.

http://www.enature.com/expert/expert_show_question.asp?questionID=18134

To remove any mystery in the description...

Here is a typical gift sample.

Keep in mind, whatever is leaving these little (relative term) packages is something that does not disturb the dogs. That would eliminate nearly any mammal. Any ideas? I'm certainly not sure of what it is and have only been told it is a "toad turd" by a local farmer; but he has generally been right on this sort of stuff.

P.S. I can give a much larger image of the, um, gift if someone needs to see such a thing to identify it.

What an education, I have never seen those but they do look like geese chit!

Big Dog said:

What an education, I have never seen those but they do look like geese chit!

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Unfortunately we have two pair of Canadian geese who mate each spring and have offspring on our island. We see all too much goose gifts on our dock. They are unbelievably large; almost as large as what's dropped by my dogs! Besides, both dogs are more than willing to eat goose sushi, if you know what I mean. But, you can see why I have some question as to if this is from toads.

It does look like reptile/frog poop. I've got a couple small tree frogs and their poops aren't that small considering how small the frog is.

If they are eating big bugs then their poop will be big too.

Dargo, could you crumble one up and see what it tastes like?

PBinWA said:

Dargo, could you crumble one up and see what it tastes like?

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Sure, not a problem if it helps identification.


Hmm, sort of like unsweetened dark chocolate with a somewhat unpleasant twang to it. It's not really very smooth as it melts on the tongue either. It seems to have some small crunchies in it as well as some pieces that sort of feels like little toothpicks mixed in. Definitely needs some sugar!

Spit it out them's fairy turds they'll make you queer as a 3 dollar bill. rugerman

Looks like turkey schmidt to me.

rugerman said:

Spit it out them's fairy turds they'll make you queer as a 3 dollar bill. rugerman

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Won't work..... he is already queerer than a $3.00 bill!!!!

Good gosh!! It is toad turds!!!

To be even more specific, it's a Bufo Americanus, or American Toads doing the dirty deed. I went out after dark a few times this weekend and found a dozen or two toads cruising around my porch, around my pool, and in front of my barn. One was nearly the size of a softball! Although being unreasonably hesitant to pick it up (I dunno, it just looked big), I finally blinded the huge warty beast with a flashlight and started to pick her (I read the females are larger, so certainly this huge thing was a female?) up and she not only peed, but dropped one of those bombs!

From what I've read, I don't really see any harm with my new house guests other than their annoying packages they leave. I was surprised to read where they are likely eating up to 1000 insects a day. According to common sense and what I've read, mine must be feeding well based on their size, their population, and their droppings.

Now what do I do?! I like having natural bug zappers, but their nightly bombing runs definitely have their down side. Thoughts? Just be happy and wash down the porch, pool area and parking areas a couple of times a week? Out in the parking area by the barn I noticed that I can blow the droppings away with my backpack leaf blower after they have dried for a couple of days.

Junkman said:

Won't work..... he is already queerer than a $3.00 bill!!!!

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Yeah?! And your point....?

Dargo said:

From what I've read, I don't really see any harm with my new house guests other than their annoying packages they leave. I was surprised to read where they are likely eating up to 1000 insects a day. According to common sense and what I've read, mine must be feeding well based on their size, their population, and their droppings.

Now what do I do?! I like having natural bug zappers, but their nightly bombing runs definitely have their down side. Thoughts? Just be happy and wash down the porch, pool area and parking areas a couple of times a week? Out in the parking area by the barn I noticed that I can blow the droppings away with my backpack leaf blower after they have dried for a couple of days.

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Well, trying to ruin their environment so they don't come around will probably ruin your environment in the process. You have to remove sources of water, moisture, shade... Basically, get rid of your pool, plants and such.

If you have the option, start by changing or removing your night lighting. The toads are attracted to the bugs. If you turn off any dusk-to-dawn lights, the bugs will move somewhere else and the toads will follow. Can you put a dusk-to-dawn light near the pond to draw them in that direction?

Another option is to spray a heavy concentration of salt water. The bad part of this is that it'll kill plants and such.

You need to get some Eastern Hog Nose Snakes. Apparently, they are the best predators of toads. Of course, the snake turds will be larger and look like large toads!

I have 2 toads living in my basement I found some droppings, and wondered what toad turds looked like. I was pretty sure what made them, but upon seeing the pic provided by dargo I'm quite satisfied that the droppings I found were indeed toad turds, and I didn't even have to taste them. thanks ~A~

Yea, we have some around our place too although thankfully not as big as yours. You could definitely break a toe by tripping over one of those.

Another interesting thing that I've noticed is that they also seem to pee in a "V" pattern. This requires further investigation Watson.