They just appear, almost magically, creating a landscape come alive with bouncing bits and pieces. Looking like animated leaf litter and forest floor detritus, the irregular staccato pulse of the earth-toned hopping causes pause to evaluate.
Much like Moses calling down God’s second pestilence on Pharaoh, panhandle Florida is experiencing its own latter-day plague-of-toads. To some it is a most nightmarish experience as the tiny creatures animate normally stationary landmarks familiar to all.
Sometimes, with a gust of wind, the amphibians will shower down from trees on unsuspecting passersby.
The hatch-out of Eastern Spadefoot Toads is a byproduct of recent generous rains which have awakened their instincts to arise and seek sustenance.
Tiny toads are hopping to new places as they eat and mature. If they survive to adulthood (and most do not), they will add to the population which emerges in late summer. This adult toad is preparing for the next generation of hopping insect hunters. With a questionable reputation for being slimy wart transmitters, they are really insect eating machines that eliminate many six-legged problems.
The diminutive creatures are recently metamorphosed toads that can easily sit on a dime in their juvenile phase with room to spare. The torrential rainfall from late April and early May weather fronts have prompted the adults to seek bodies of water to lay their eggs.
Females can lay up to 2,500 eggs at once, with the eggs hatching tadpoles after a few days. As such, some fishless ponds have been known to spawn 1 million tadpoles.
A few weeks after the storms, the tadpoles are now making themselves known in a big way with a massive transformation into toads. Anyone near a pool, puddle or body of fresh water is likely to encounter these toads.
The toad hordes should be gone in a week or so as they disperse from the temporary pools and search for food, including any unlucky mosquitoes.
They can grow up to three inches in length if they reach maturity. The plentiful toad supply also serves as food for birds and other animals which frequent swamps, wetlands and seasonally flooded areas.
When the rains slack off and the environment dries, the toads will burrow into the top soil and patiently wait for the next big rain event to start the cycle over again.
This species is very long-lived and populations often go for many months without successful rain-induced reproductive events. Their patience now rewarded, they are always ready to hop-to new opportunities in north Florida’s hospitable environment.
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