As the snow melts and the days get warmer, you or your neighbors may be doing some spring-cleaning in yards and gardens. During this time, toads often make their homes and shelters in the damp leaves left over from the fall. Making a toad home out of recycled materials is a great way to supplement the habitat lost from cleaning out the leaves in your garden and make a happy shelter for your smaller, hoppy neighbors. Making these homes not only gives toads a healthy habitat, but also has a positive effect on your garden. Toads eat thousands of bugs throughout the summer and can help make your garden flourish as the sun starts to warm and bugs return.

Materials:

• A recycled container
  • This can be almost anything- a half gallon milk container, a liter bottle, an old Tupperware or coffee can.
• Newspaper or printer paper
• Glue or tape
• Anything else you want to decorate your new toad home

You may use household items or things found in the woods. It is important to remember that when gathering things from the woods, only take items that are downed, brown or dead. Plants have been working hard all winter to save any growing energy they have for the spring and we want to respect their hard work by leaving anything green or alive in the woods.

Steps:

1. Grab an adult.
2. Inside or outside your home collect decorations you may want to include when your toad home is completed. In this example, natural materials found in the woods were used.
3. Gather all your materials and find a comfortable spot to work.

   

4. Lay your recycled bottle on its side and cut it in half. Cutting it in half will allow for two toad homes to be made. 

   

5. With the open end of your container facing down, use scissors to cut a doorway into the side of the new home. Make sure this door is wide enough for a toad or frog to comfortably get through it.

   

   

6. If your container is transparent, use newspaper or leaves to block light from outside from coming in. Toads will feel more comfortable and safer in a dark home. Use tape or glue to secure the newspaper or leaves to the inside of the new home. Even if your container is not transparent, you can use leaves to create a darker atmosphere inside 

   

   

7. Find a shaded spot near or in a garden. The closer to a garden the more likely you are to find toads in your new home due to the greater abundance of insects. Once you found your spot, start decorating! The best part about decorating you ask? Toads have not been known to show any preference of home based on decoration. No matter how you decorate the outside of your home toads will most likely show up! Just be sure to put your decorations on the outside so the toads have lots of wiggle room in their home!

   

   There you have it, a toad home! Make sure to check back in on your toad home. Are you finding any new, slimy neighbors? If you are not having success, think about what other places would provide a cool, shady refuge with plenty of food close by. If you make multiple and place them in different spots, is one having more success than the other? Why do you think this is happening? What makes one area more ideal for a toad?

Show us your toad homes! Tag @AudubonVermont on Instagram or Facebook.