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Dragons
in your Garden Help amphibians and reptiles near you: Gardening with care!
The garden can be a hazardous place for amphibians and reptiles so it's important you and your neighbours garden with care. Here are some tips on how to reduce the risk of harm to these creatures.
Common frogs, particularly, like to sit in long grass in the summer
months, so be very careful when
mowing the lawn,
especially if you've noticed froglets recently emerging from the pond.
Carefully walk the area you're planning to mow before you start. Any
amphibians or reptiles in your garden should be disturbed by your
footfalls and will move on.
Avoid the use of pond tonics and garden
chemicals as
the effects on amphibians are still unknown. Even organic products can
disturb the natural balance of a pond. Also, many amphibians (and
slow-worms) are excellent natural pest-controllers and pesticides remove
their prey.
Cats are a particular
predator of
amphibians and reptiles in urban areas. You can reduce the likelihood of
them, and other predators, catching animals by increasing the number of hiding places in your
garden: make sure there are cracks within rockeries, openings around your
compost heap or add a pond for amphibians to flee into when startled. Garden netting
can trap and kill wildlife. Grass snakes in particular, when going in
and out of ponds, may become entangled in pond netting with a mesh size
of less than 5cm.
Be wary of
paving slabs
near the pond during summer. On sunny days emerging amphibians can
quickly dry out and die on hot paving slabs. You can stop this happening
by covering these areas temporarily with a damp towel or moist lawn
roll, or making sure there is plenty of planting up to the edge of the
pond.
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