[Sethia Soliman]

Tadpole hunting​

Do you remember the thrill of playing in a creek, eagerly scooping tadpoles, and taking them home with you? While kids today would often prefer video games for entertainment, there’s an undeniable charm to these types of outdoor activities that create lasting memories. Even though the jars that housed those tiny critters would stench, I, too, remember the anticipation of staying up late, hoping to witness the moment when frog legs would eventually emerge!

Source: The Outdoors Parent

Do you have fond memories of tadpole hunting? Tell us all about it in the comments below!

 

[millicent haha]

For us it was pools formed after the gully flooded, then taking the wrigglers home to wait for the legs....but, oh the smell.

 

[pixiemoon]

Hours of fun. I remember when I was about 7years old I had a big plastic wash container with tadpoles in the bathroom, a pray mantis nest hanging on the veranda curtains & a couple of butterfly chrysalis there as well. I woke up one morning with a scream from the bathroom. Mum was not happy with little frogs hopping around & baby mantis climbing all over the curtains. Mum complained “ why can’t you be like other little girls & play with dolls” I was never allowed to bring things into the house again. I live in the tropics & I am in my 60’s & I still have a frog pond. Love watching the little taddies eating their boils lettuce. The frogs that hatch are White lip green, large green tree & little brown tree frogs. So yes it is very noisey in the wet season. The males have already started calling in the rain.

 

[elaj711]

In the 60's and 70's it is still good to go hunting tadpoles in the damp or swamp but now that sepsis and other diseases are common breeding ground on this places it is not advisable specially for kids or even the older generations. The world and it's environment are fast degrading due to humans and too much developments plus the what they call advancement or improvement of our new world

 

[Gsr]

What a lot of fun we had tadpole hunting in the creeks and water holes on our way to and from school. We used to keep some at school as well as at home. It was interesting watching them grow legs, lose their tail and turn into a frog. Last year we had 100s of frogs eggs, then tadpoles, then frogs, bred in the water in our old bathtub in the backyard. They were also in three round plastic tubs holding water, and in the moat around our water feature in our front yard. The frogs out the back were green, the ones in the moat were brown. For over nine months we had them breeding. There was still one in the moat after winter this year, it spent all winter in the moat, finally turned into a frog in early spring. The smell was potent, luckily when it rained the tank overflowed into the bathtub and flushed the water and made it a lot cleaner. We put net over the in and out overflow pipes on the tub so no tadpoles got washed out. We regularly took water out of the other tubs and the moat and put fresh in to make it cleaner. We took photos and videos of every different stage and sent the grandkids and some friends with young kids, they were fascinated. This year we had lots of frogs eggs in the bathtub again, then lots of tadpoles, but something, maybe a rival frog, has been eating them. We have very few tadpoles left, the number is diminishing every day. If we get more happening we will put a net over the tub to hopefully give them a chance. We have many different frogs croaking around our house pretty much daily now, and the neighbours have told us their frog population in their yards has increased as well.

 

[SeniorSnoopy]

We emigrated to Oz back in 1965 and mum and dad bought a house near the river. As we were near the river, the area was quite swampy. Directly across the road was a creek which my friends and I would play in much to the dismay of my nanna who used to wash our clothes. And across the road from that was what the locals called "The Brorgy Patch". In the summer months it was dry and the local boys would do their donuts there on a Friday and Saturday night. But during the wet months, it was very wet and boggy and perfect for tadpole catching. I would have jars lined up on the back verandah watching the different stages of evolution of my beloved taddies. Then I would take them back across the road and set them free. I was very much a tom boy when I was younger. Nowadays, I wont go near a frog. I hate them. LOL. How things change over time. Over the years, they filled both the creek and the Brorgy Patch in and built a tavern that was there for many many years. That too was demolished to make way for many residential homes. If only they knew the fun that we had as kids on the land that they are now living.

 

[starrysnan]

When we were kids my big brother and I used to go down to the river and bring back frogs eggs in jam jars. My Mum was horrified probably thinking we would have an invasion of frogs at our place! We were told in no uncertain terms to take them back - so we did - probably a better idea for the frogs!