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No Frogspawn In Our Ponds for 2 Years

We've have a couple of small frog ponds in our garden and for over 10 years we had frogs and frogspawn in them. The past two years however although we see mature frogs in the ponds, they haven't laid any spawn. 
Is it just us or is this a common problem across the UK. (We are in the West Midlands)

Posts

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,924
    No frog or toad spawn here either. 😕
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • As I said in a previous post,for the first time in about 14 years there,s no frog spawn here either.apparently ,because my pond is full of palmate newts,the frogs don,t like it. They say these things run in cycles . Because there,s no frog spawn to eat, the newt population will decline and then hopefully the frogs will come back.We,ll see what happens over the next few years….
  • tjthomastjthomas Posts: 2
    No newts in our pond though
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,341
    I've had my little w/l pond for about 6 years now.
    Never see any frogs or spawn, but there are lots of newts in the pond every year.
    I used to get masses of frogs and spawn in my fish pond, but none at all for the last 5-6 years :(
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,793
    Had several ponds for 10 years, in the garden and at our allotment, we have never had any frog spawn.

    We did get newts for the first time last year, which more than makes up for the lack of frogs, although we would to have both.

    We rarely see frogs or toads in our garden (not unusual as it's very enclosed), but surprisingly we rarely see them at our allotment too, and that is surrounded by meadow/woodland and a stream. 
  • We inherited an empty pond in 2019. We have at least a pair of newts, and I've seen at least 1 frog. No frogspawn yet though.

    I assumed it was because we're enclosed on all four sides so it's difficult for wildlife to find their way in other than under the small gate via the driveway.
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  • My brother lives 4 doors down and his wildlife pond is literally full of frogspawn at the moment but ours has two tiny lumps only. Our pond is about 3 times the size and is really two connected together but they prefer his for whatever reason. Our neighbour used to half some old Belfast sinks a few feet fro  our pond on the boundary and they laid in those rather than in our pond.

    I think a nice sunny pond with shallow margins is what they really like first and foremost, the it's the lack of predators and a plentiful food source.  If you aren't getting spawn and there are frogs in the aren't really then perhaps one of those things has changed.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,673
    I used to regularly have frog/toad spawn in my garden pond but for the last two or three years there didn't appear to have been any, however when I cleaned the filter out the other day I found spawn inside it some contained little black dots and others little tadpoles, I transferred it to the allotment water feature so the pond fish can't eat them plus I get an army of slug eaters on the allotment plot where they are most needed.
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,413
    We have spawn in our pond but the newts are making short work of it, we have a big newt population anything up to 60 
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