Nice photo Stephania

I have had lots of those little guys visiting my greenhouse. Guess all the rain we had this summer made for great play area!

Stephanie: How do you know that it is a toad and not a frog? I have a similarly looking amphibian (a frog I think) occasionaly residing in one of my billbergias. Figure it is a good thing, but maybe someone has a different opinion about this.

Hi Stephania,
Funny you should post a pic of your toad,because I think that I now have one living in my plant room. When I brought all the plants indoors in late Sept.,I checked them for bugs,etc.first,but it seems that a toad did find a way to sneak in with a plant. The 'evidence' was a small turd on the floor,and some mini-puddles.
And at night,some loud throaty noises that would stop when I tried to find the source. Maybe one day it will show up and I can get a pic. (before it goes oudoors again)
Bob ;)

The most noticeable differences are: Frogs tend to have smoother skin where as a toad has dry and warty type skin and prefer a bit dryer conditions

The difference between a frog and a toad is not as hard to see as you think.
A toad has a more granular skin, a frog has smooth skin (there are a few exeptions). Frogs have big muscles in their hind legs so they can jump quite some distance. Toads take it a bit slower, hardly ever jump and mostly walk. Some toads can even run pretty fast.

There are other (more important) criteria but you have to take them apart to see that. So I'm not telling anyone :-)

Going by the picture I think this looks a lot like Bufo melanostictus. A pretty common toad in Asia.
Toads can be good climbers though, especialy when there's a nice wet spot like that to cool them down in the tropical heat.

These guys eat grashoppers by the dozen Chanin, be very very happy he's there.

Sander

Seems like I was typing wile you were posting HDD.

Sander

We have lots of big toads here (Bufo marinus) and I often find them in the rotted-out center cup of a big old Neo, or burrowed in the potting soil around a plant's base, but never down inside a narrow, spiny Aechmea. That must have been hard getting in there!

Stephania, I was originally horrified when I saw your toad in that aechmea - but good photo. I love frogs, as does everyone (?), but the cane toad ( Bufo ? - should be 'wartis horribilis!) is much maligned here in Australia. Like the rabbit and fox (and sheep!), it was introduced for all the wrong reasons. Now cane toads have migrated south from Queensland into N.S.W., and 'yobbos' and school kids play golf with them! As road-kill, they kill native birds and animals when they eat their poisonous glands. I hope your toad is harmless!

I found sometimes taod burrow in my plant pots, for hiding :-P.
But, as Sander mentioned, they are a good insect controller.

It's funny, our Bufos are the same species as the Cane Toads in Australia, but for some reason they haven't gotten the same bad rap here as they have in Oz. They do pose a threat to household pets if they are not smart enough to avoid trying to catch them in their mouths, but our dogs seem to know better. Other than that, they don't cause any problems, although if you try to pick one up it will promptly empty its bladder on you in an attempt to become smaller.

We live in a rural area, so they are everywhere, especially on "termite nights". It is impossible to drive at night without hitting at least one, but I don't go out of my way to do so. Hopefully they are consuming their weight in termites! That's a much bigger problem for us.

Cane toads are eeeevil and nassssty! There's a whole section on their Wikipedia page about why they're so hated here in Australia.

My in-laws used to have them in abundance at their old house. My mother in law had a pair of long handled tongs which were her toad catching tongs. She'd stick them in plastic bags then freeze them, (more humane than hitting them with a golf club) then chuck them in the bin.