You betcha ! The big lobes on the ends of the fingers are a dead giveaway. Lucky you ! ( smile )

They are coming our way. Two counties away. I don't like to kill anything. Not thrilled about killing frogs at all. I guess it's that or quit gardening.

Thanks for the quick replies!

Maggie, don't quit gardening just because the CTF is coming to your town. Perhaps the first "scouts" won't take a liking to it, or maybe it will be too chilly this winter, and they won't be in a big hurry to invade your yard.

Keep us posted about this, OK?

Susie

Treefrog - definitely.
Cuban - not sure.

All treefrogs have those big pads on their toes, not just the Cubans.

While it's sad to know that the CTFs are out-competing our native treefrogs, I doubt there's much a handful of people can do stop them. We might as well get used to them because they're here to stay.

John

Susie, thanks again for sharing your photo.
Just to reinforce my strong suspicions, I forwarded it to probably the foremost authority on Cuban Treefrogs's in the state of Florida, asking if it was indeed a nasty CTF.
Here is his prompt reply :

Yes Joe, that is a baby Cuban Treefrog.

Learn more about this invasive species in Florida at my website.

http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/

Steve

Steve A. Johnson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

University of Florida

Dept. of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation

( Thanx Carol )

This post was edited by jofus on Mon, Sep 23, 13 at 16:20

Ever since the leopard frog population in my garden increased to over 14 adults I haven't spotted a single cuban tree frog. It looks like either my efforts to irradicate them by freezing any I found in the garden have knocked back the cuban numbers or the leopards are driving them away/killing them.

Maybe I can't kill them all, but I can get the ones in my yard and keep the native green lizards alive here. It also keeps the walls and windows of my house clean of their poop.

I agree with kat and kara. I only first noted these CTF's about a month ago in my backyard and was shocked at first. A totally new experience for me.
Whether or not all this rain has spiked their invasion or not, I immediately learned to identify them and to do the best I could to eradicate as many as possible. Even installed six of the 3 ft long pvc pipes and check them and the mango leaves each morning. The first week I dispatched at least a dozen of the ugly invaders,..felt like a marine on Wake Island ! ( smile )
In last week I have come across only two CTF's and more than six of the native green guys ! Good to hear all our efforts seem to be paying off, even if it's only in our immediate areas.

Jofus, out of respect for the good professor, you may want to edit your post to remove his email address. Bots routinely cull email addresses from places like public forums and it can result in lots and lots of spam.

Carol

I kept telling my roommate not to leave the big containers out in the yard to catch water, but she swore she was going to use the water. Now that we have had several torrential rains, there are Cuban tadpoles in her little plastic swimming pool she refused to turn over. I'm dumping them tomorrow.

Kasima

How can you tell the difference between the CTF and the natives when the tadpoles are really little?

Even the one with his legs formed, even when they are tiny froggies, are hard for me to know. That pic was blown up and it made it obvious the little guy had large toepads, but not at all obvious in real life....especially without a real treefrog to compare it to.

I have lots of fresh eggs and lots of tadpoles about a month old. (I save rainwater, too) I wish they were all a future generation of our good natives, but I bet they're not. And I don't know what to do with them since I'm not sure who they really are.

Guess I am lucky ( yeah right ) but every Cuban Treefrog I encounter, although most are still small, is past the tadpole stage. Therefore I have taken UF's advice and installed the pvc pipes in my backyard. Thought for awhile I was slowly eliminating them but now have so many that I see them jumping out of the lawn as I come by on my riding mower. Am assuming they are CTF's as that's what I mostly find in the pipes.

In the case of tiny tadpoles, I would go on the UF's informative website,

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw259

and ask one of their experts.
Bottom line, they are as serious about eliminating these disgusting, sex crazed, carnivorous gluttons as we are. Am sure someone will have an answer on how to better identify the tiny guys.

This post was edited by jofus on Sun, Sep 29, 13 at 13:03