Are frogs good or bad for butterflies.

[butterfly_pete]

I have a virtually enclosed back garden.
I have planted numerous butterfly-attracting plants.
I do not cut the grass and I have seen a speckled wood and meadow brown deposit eggs on the grass.
I do not have a water feature of any kind.
But I have at least 2 frogs. Don’t know how they got there or why they stay.
I just looked up what frogs eat on the web, it said insects. Does that include butterflies?
Is a possibility that frogs eat the butterflies.
I don't mind them eating the slugs and snails.

So, should I relocate the frogs to a local nature reserve to preserve my butterflies.

Thanks
Pete

[Padfield]

Frogs are good. Keep them and enjoy them! They will have no effect at all on your butterfly populations.

Guy

[Padfield]

Having said that, I now notice you say you have no water. I presume there is water somewhere near. In summer, after spawning, frogs do spend time away from water but I think they need there to be a pond somewhere in the vicinity, to return to when it is hot and dry. If your frogs are somehow stranded in an arid garden and can't get back to the water they came from, maybe they do need repatriating.

If in doubt, leave things where they are.

They certainly won't reduce your butterfly numbers.

Guy

[David M]

I thought frogs ate butterflies given the opportunity (or am I mistaking them for toads?)

[Padfield]

They will eat butterflies, it's true. But the general rule is that prey numbers control predator numbers, not the other way round. There are exceptions (like domestic cats, for example!!!) but I think it's fair to say that a healthy butterfly garden will inevitably - and quite properly - contain butterfly predators.

Frogs are generalists and though each frog may take thousands of insects in its lifetime I don't think they will have a particular impact on any species of butterfly.

Guy

[butterfly_pete]

Thanks for the information.

I think, on balance, the frogs will have to be relocated.
Since there is no water in my garden and it’s is too small to take butterflies and Frogs.

Cheers
Pete

[Padfield]

If it's really in the welfare interests of the frogs to move them, because you think they've arrived in your garden by accident and can't get out, then do so. It's great that you care enough to think of these things. But do remember that most of the time, well-intentioned human interference doesn't benefit animals at all!!

You can't make your garden a predator-free zone, though!! Surely you want dragonflies to zoom through and take the odd white, and spotted flycatchers to sit on the post in the corner and swoop up the odd meadow brown... Approximately one egg laid out of every hundred goes on to reproduce as an adult. Of the other 99% a large proportion are lost to predators. If they weren't, there would be a problem!!

Guy

[David M]

I accept that, Guy, but to know that you're presiding over a 99% level of butterfly predation can make the reality a little too close for comfort.

[Padfield]

I have a feeling those frogs are going on a lovely holiday to the local nature reserve anyway.

My closing advice is, release them in or right next to the water, so they know where it is and how to get back to it.

Guy