Froglife

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Toad Spawn

Spawn

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Written by Paul Arestides, Transforming Lives Trainee

Frog, toad or newt?

As shown in the below photos, frog spawn is laid in clumps of jelly-like eggs, usually in shallow parts of water. Toad spawn is laid in long chains of double-rowed single eggs and is usually in deeper water, it’s also a lot harder to see! Newts lay single eggs inside folded leaves. 

Is there too much Frog spawn in my pond?

You can never have too much! Only a small amount of spawn will survive to become tadpoles with even less becoming froglets and eventually adult frogs. This is why frogs lay thousands of eggs each year to ensure at least some of them survive.

The spawn in my pond hasn’t developed properly.

Unfortunately, this does happen frequently, and there are many factors as to why spawn may not develop. Frog spawn needs sun and warmth to become tadpoles, a frost or prolonged cold spell may kill off the eggs, also too much shade means the spawn might not get enough sunlight and warmth to develop quick enough. Nature will find a way, some years will be better than others.

Can you move frogspawn to different ponds?

We always advise never to transfer spawn, tadpoles or amphibians. This is due to the risk of spreading invasive animals and plants and also amphibian diseases. 

We start getting frogspawn sightings in the UK around January, normally in the Southwest first where the climate is milder. It’s a great time of excitement to see if your garden pond or a local water body is alive with breeding amphibians.

You can log your findings on our free Dragon Finder App available to download on your mobile device.

For advice on amphibians and reptiles, you can visit our FAQ pages. 

What our animals are doing this month: Toad Special

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The wonderful common toad will be migrating to its breeding grounds now. They take the saying ‘there’s safety in numbers’ seriously and migrate en masse. These migratory journeys can be perilous especially as we tend to dissect habitats with roads and housing estates. This is where our lovely volunteers from Toads on Roads come in. Rather than lots of squished toads, we have volunteers that visit migratory crossing places with buckets and torches to transport the toads from one side of the road to the other. The numbers can vary, but there can be hundreds travelling at once, so that means lots of buckets and volunteers are needed!

Once safely across, the toads can go about their business getting to their ancestral breeding pond. The males get to the breeding grounds first and wait for females to arrive. You may get the odd male straggler that manages to grab a female before she gets to the pond-  successfully securing his mate.

Once the toads have found mates, the main event begins- spawning! A toad’s spawn is unlike frogs in that it is laid in two long strings rather than being laid in clumps. The strings are attached to underwater plants and one female can lay as many as 1500 eggs! This is to ensure the next generation of toads is secure.

Toads waste no time leaving the water once spawning has been completed. Back to slurping slugs at night at their earliest convenience!

If you would like to get involved and support our toads please check out our website for a Toad Patrol near you.

Common toad spawn