A step by step guide to build a frog habitat to lure Pacific Coast Treefrogs to mate and lay eggs. Provide a home for tadpoles and help your local tree frog population. You can have their music and hear their songs for yourself with these simple steps. Here in California the amphibians have been hit hard.  Years of drought, fires and fungal disease have not been kind.  Making a habitat is a great way to help our little webbed friends out!

The first thing you need to start with is a vessel.  You want a pot that is watertight, at least a foot in diameter and at least 6” deep. The size helps buffer the water temperature so you don't accidentally cook your tadpoles. If you have a pot you love but it has drainage holes in it you can fix this with bondo and a ceramic tile.  Just put bondo around the edges of the tile and put this over the hole. Do remember to wait for it to dry before using. 

After preparing your vessel, you want to ready the spot that you want it to go. Make sure it’s level and if on soil or bark put some bricks or flagstone underneath,  This will help prevent it from moving and losing level in the future. For placement I’d recommend part shade in warmer climates with smaller vessels, ie less than 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. If you’re in a mild climate like I am or are using a larger water pot, full sun is just fine.

The next step is to add pool filter sand. You want to add 1 to 2 inches of sand at the bottom of the vessel.  I learned this trick from the aquarium people from when I was putting together my pandemic tropical aquarium.  The sand acts as a home for nitrifying bacteria that help keep the water clean.  Basically the bacteria help break down organic debris like fallen leaves so they don't turn into ammonia and kill the tadpoles.  Quick note, pool filter sand is amazing!!! Its prewashed, cheap, and a great ingredient in various soil mixes you can make

After the sand it’s time to fill it with water! This is pretty obvious, fill it to the top and keep it full.  If you live on city water, you do have to worry about chlorine. There’s a super easy way around this, you just have to use a dechlorinator.  You can find this in pet stores or online, I like prime by seachem, they produce really good products for aquariums and are top shelf.  You probably only need to do this the first time.  After that time the topping up water shouldn’t have enough chlorine in it to be a problem. At this point you want to add a mosquito dunk to prevent mosquito larva from moving in before the tadpoles.  Once you have the tadpoles they eat larva so you don't need to worry about them. Frogs breed from late winter into summer for me so I don’t have to use the dunks until summer. They may be different in your climate so monitor your vessels for mosquito larva.

Finally you add floating plants.  You can find these at most nurseries and the ones I like are water hyacinth, water cabbage and duck weed. You just place the plants in the water and forget about them. They are that easy!! Every once in a while you’ll have to pull some of the plants out to compost. They grow aggressively!!!  The benefits of floating plants are threefold. First, The plants provide a platform for the male frogs to lure in their lovers. That warbling croaks are their come hither to the ladies. Second, the plants help keep the water clean. They pull excess nitrates out of the water to grow that can harm the tadpoles. Finally, the plants provide shade which helps control temperature of the water and slow evaporation.

If you want this chorus of the night, join me in making  a frog habitat!

Products mentioned (paid links)

Prime SeaChem https://amzn.to/43v3Kzc

Mosquito Dunks https://amzn.to/4kwvpGV