Maybe it's just a local thing and temporary to boot, but ordinarily we have dozens of toads around the reptile and rodent buildings, and some green tree frogs hanging around the house. For the last several months, I have seen exactly ONE (1) toad and ONE (1) green tree frog. Period.
I have heard vague stories here and there about amphibians being in trouble, but this is some first hand observations of something being amiss around here concerning those critters. Has any one else experienced something similar? Or perhaps opposing observations to set my mind at east that we aren't seen a serious decline in amphibians?
On a perhaps related note, this is the WORST year I have ever seen for mosquitoes around here. I have a few mosquito traps running, and after about a month when the mosquito outbreak first began, I have enough mosquitoes to fill a five gallon bucket nearly HALF full. Now that, my friends, is one HELL of a lot of mosquitoes! I had to change out the capture bag on one of the traps after only SIX (6) days running, where I have NEVER had a bag get even close to full even after months of running.
Here's a pic of an empty capture bag:
And here's a bag after just SIX (6) days worth of mosquitoes have filled it:
I'm thinking that perhaps if the amphibians ARE in decline, even locally, perhaps this is contributing to the INCLINE of the mosquito population. I would suspect that the tadpoles usually abundant in temporary ponds probably take quite a toll on mosquito larvae, but if the amphibians are basically gone, well MANY more of the mosquito larvae get to change over into mosquitoes.
Just seems kind of coincidental to me....
I have heard vague stories here and there about amphibians being in trouble, but this is some first hand observations of something being amiss around here concerning those critters. Has any one else experienced something similar? Or perhaps opposing observations to set my mind at east that we aren't seen a serious decline in amphibians?
On a perhaps related note, this is the WORST year I have ever seen for mosquitoes around here. I have a few mosquito traps running, and after about a month when the mosquito outbreak first began, I have enough mosquitoes to fill a five gallon bucket nearly HALF full. Now that, my friends, is one HELL of a lot of mosquitoes! I had to change out the capture bag on one of the traps after only SIX (6) days running, where I have NEVER had a bag get even close to full even after months of running.
Here's a pic of an empty capture bag:
And here's a bag after just SIX (6) days worth of mosquitoes have filled it:
I'm thinking that perhaps if the amphibians ARE in decline, even locally, perhaps this is contributing to the INCLINE of the mosquito population. I would suspect that the tadpoles usually abundant in temporary ponds probably take quite a toll on mosquito larvae, but if the amphibians are basically gone, well MANY more of the mosquito larvae get to change over into mosquitoes.
Just seems kind of coincidental to me....
I'm not sure where you're at, but during the 31 years I've lived in FL the amphibian population has definitely taken a big downturn (at least in my area). I know Paines Prairie took a big hit during the really bad droughts in the 80s. In my area (Hernando County) a lot of the breeding areas have dried up and never really come back. I've noticed a resurgence in the number of toads, but have never seen the big groups of squirrel tree frogs, leopard, pig and bullfrogs that I used to see. It used to be deafening around my house during a nighttime summer rainshower - it's much quieter now. Seems like we never quite catch up on the rain. Sometimes the ground gets pretty wet, but some of the ephemeral ponds are just gone now. Hopefully our rainy seasons get back on track at some point (of course less than a half inch in September did not help). 