So far, so good. I waited to bring the frogs in for overwintering as long as I could. It took about three days to locate a few frogs. For some reason I was thinking they could just be easily scooped out of the water, but nope.... they all had to play frog-n-seek, plus my hand was so numb and cold I couldn't tell what I was feeling for on the bottom. The frogs that have been captured are all dark and yucky looking and I can barely tell them apart. I had to practically scoop all the water out of the pond before most of them were found and also picked a time when the outdoor pond temp was pretty close to the indoor tub temp. I think they will be fine most of the winter but will have to keep a careful watch on the temps during Jan/Feb. I really wish I had a bigger pond, but our smallish backyard just isn't big enough for one. Looking forward to tadpoles in the spring :)

I also found something that kind of looked like a baby dragon fly nymph? Not really sure, but it would be cool if it was a dragon fly nymph. As long as it didn't start munching on the baby tadpoles anyway. I put it back in the pond after I replaced the water from the buckets.

What is your indoor tub temperature? Dormant frogs do look pretty yucky!

If you look up photos of dragonfly nymphs, and they look like what you found, then that's what they are. I find a few every year.

Does your outdoor pond freeze solid? If so, the nymph you found might not survive. If there's even a few drops of liquid water in the bottom, it probably will survive. You could have put him inside with the frogs as long as the water was cold enough so both species were dormant.

*** Update ***

So far the froggies are doing fine. The water temperature in the tub has warmed up to 54F and four of them came up to the top and are sitting in the "frog island" bowl from the pond that gave them something to sit on in case they woke up. (The bowl has plants overwintering in it also.) I wasn't sure how much below freezing the frogs could take in the tub or for how long, so the tub ended up getting moved from the sunporch into the basement after an extended cold spell. Right now they are snuggled together in a single pile and not very active. I am hoping they will go back under the water once it cools back down. Not too much longer.

This morning, I saw a little frog jump into my 153 gallon pond outside! It's warmed up and will be 65 degrees F tomorrow outside! Frogs will wake up in the dead of winter when we get these warm spells. Hopefully, that means that their waking up inside where you have them won't do any harm as long as it's not so long that they need food.

Hi Robyn,

I really hope none of your little froggies get caught outside of their pond when it starts to get cold again. I will keep an eye on mine, without disturbing them too much. There is one that looks a bit skinnier than the others, but she is a lot smaller than the others so maybe in comparison, she only looks skinnier. Frogzilla looks even fatter if that is possible LOL

It warmed up here and all the frogs were on the side of the pond I have a small pond but there has to be a dozen or so on the bottom just flat and laying there when it is frozen under some leaves I left I have field tile in there so they can hide with the fish. Wouldnt as 54 they come out of dormancy heck my water only warmed slightly and they were all over the place. How do you keep them in the indoor thing? have not seen my frogzilla :(

C2

Hi Christina,

That is funny that you asked how I planned on keeping them in the tub just as I have been trying to figure out an answer to that one. LOL I have found/counted all five frogs now.

I did have a 4 ft tall chicken wire fence wrapped around the tub to keep the other pets out (mainly the cat). The chicken wire doesn't really keep frogs from escaping (they just pop right out of the holes) so I have had to rewrap the inside of the cage with window screen. Right now that seems to be holding them in. The temperatures outside are dropping back to the low 30's again so hopefully that will get them chilled and inactive again. Their current water temp is 51... not cold enough yet. I am sure that the frogs would have been fine if their tub was left in the unheated sunporch, but I really couldn't take the chance of the tub freezing over when we were having the 16-19F days in November. For keeping frogs, I really should have a bigger, deeper pond but there isn't that much room in the backyard for one :(

I hope you find your frogzilla in the spring or whenever you have nicer weather for it to come out of hibernation.