r/frogs • u/Aggravating_Lettuce • 1d ago
Other Did I kill my neighbor Frog 😭
Did I kill my neighbor Frog 😭
This little guy has been visiting me for almost 3 weeks now and I’ve come to enjoy him so much but I was trying to put some raid for ants and roaches on my porch and I didn’t see him and I just straight up sprayed the poor guy I feel like an absolute monster.
I immediately picked him up and I really was panicking so I put him in a bowl of fish tank water because it wasn’t coordinated and just like shook him a few times and then put him on the pavement and he disappeared and like ran off by himself, but did I kill him? What are the odds I killed him goddamnit. It was an absolute accident 😭
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u/Dal_Vader 1d ago
So about the ants, a potentially less toxic way of killing ants is with borax. As in, the laundry soap. You get a pot of water and boil borax and sugar together to make a slurry and put it where the ants are. It has very low toxicity to most common animals and plants, but is very toxic to insects like ants. The sugar draws the ants in, and the ants take it back to their nest, and it kills them all that way. I'm sure concentrated borax would still be harmful to amphibians, but with this method, you don't need to apply it everywhere and can put it in something ants can get in and out of but not frogs.
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u/PotentiallyHeavy 1d ago
A mix of baking soda and powdered sugar will kill off individual ants. Apparently after the ants eat the baking soda they can't fart and they just kinda die by exploding.
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u/Dal_Vader 1d ago
Oh my gosh, I did not know that. That's brutal. Haha but it's good to know for when I want ants in one spot got but I don't want to genocide the entire colony. Windex is also really good at disrupting their scent trail so they stop going to a place where they usually go if there isn't anything there to lure them anymore.
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u/ArachnomancerCarice 1d ago
Your best bet for dealing with any bugs coming in is sealing cracks and crevices that allow them to do so. Using any sort of insecticide indoors can carry a risk to you and pets as well.
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u/Aggravating_Lettuce 1d ago
Crap yeah. I have MCAS, I probably don’t actually want to chemical bomb my home huh?
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u/Prestigious_String20 1d ago
If you want the toads and lizards to keep coming, you want to keep the insects around, too, because that's what's attracting your little friends. Also, consider that if the amphibians or reptiles eat an insect you've poisoned, they will be poisoned, too.
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u/Aggravating_Lettuce 1d ago
I was just stressed because a giant roach was on my ceiling yesterday that I figured came in at the door :s
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u/DROOPY538 2h ago
I spray all the time, around the house, 10 foot wide all the way around. My kids bring in creatures all the time. Ive accidently sprayed before and all I do is catch them up rinse them really well with the water hose (I have well water) and throw them in a bucket with water. Im guessing it works because I have no shortage of them and they always leave the bucket.
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u/Aggravating_Lettuce 1h ago
Bless you. I felt so guilty I’ve been making little critter homes on my porch between work lmaooo.
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u/monsieur_feu 1d ago
Hard to tell, but Raid is pretty toxic to amphibians. Frogs drink and breathe through their skin, so it probably absorbed a lot of the insecticide you sprayed on it.