Tadpoles eat mosquito larvae…and frogs eat lots of bugs…IDK…are they really harmful to the horses?
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Tadpoles eat mosquito larvae…and frogs eat lots of bugs…IDK…are they really harmful to the horses?
In no way do I condone gross water for the horses, I’m actually quite curious and interested!
@Barn Mom No, I do not think the tadpoles are in any way harmful to the horses. I just don’t like wiggly little things in my water trough. The horse and pony could care less about them. I was just looking for away to keep the frogs out, so they wouldn’t lay their eggs in there to begin with.
Tadpoles, for the most part, don’t eat mosquito larva. Tadpoles are mostly herbivores, they do compete with mosquito larva for food, and their presence negatively impacts the growth and development of the larva. According to a study done in Australia. Are you sure it’s the mosquito floats that are keeping the larva numbers down? or the tadpoles?
Can you relocate the egg strings before they become tadpoles?
I still think the easiest and safest solution is dumping/scrubbing the trough frequently. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t fill them all the way and generally dump them daily or every other day. Never have had an issue with tadpoles or mosquitoes. And I live in Virginia where it’s basically a swamp 3 months of the year. Another thing I haven’t seen mentioned -’ I bet water temperature has something to do with encouraging these beasties. The water in a black Rubbermaid stock tank gets pretty warm and soupy on a 90 degree day. That’s the other reason I like to dump troughs daily. The horses drink more if the water is tap cold.
@4LeafCloverFarm , those shallow troughs are meant for calves. Unlike horses, cows are able to use beverage dispensers in the manner intended and don’t step into them. :lol: Those shallow troughs also don’t have plugs. You have to tip them to empty them and they’re harder to dump with when full than a larger trough because the leverage point is low to the ground. I use a clean muck bucket or two or three in places where I want a smaller trough.
Failing that, and in places that are remote and too difficult to clean that often, I think Guillerme is on point with the tiny bit of Clorox trick.
as imperiled as frogs are on a global scale , I would never dissuade frogs from trying to get on in life, tree frogs in particular which are a favorite. We have buggered up the environment so severely that frogs, globally are is a very sharp decline and many iconic tree species have become extinct
A majority of the tadpoles are going to be eaten by the other tadpoles in King of the Hill fashion. As far as pristine water is concerned, that is something of our invention. These frogs are not going to harm the horses.
move the tough away from the shaded vegetative areas, where the adults dwell at the end of the repro season.
In the mean time enjoy your little bug eaters.
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:lol: That explains a lot!
Ours dogs seem to like them, so we put one in our dog run. So I was able to re-purpose one of them. I keep the other as a back-up if we have a trough that springs a leak or something. They are ungainly to empty, as they are way more flexible than a Rubbermaid trough, and when full, you really have to fight with it to flip it over (which I had not considered when I bought them - they looked so tiny and easy to move around!).
That’s what this biologist would do. The tadpoles aren’t causing any real problems for the horses’ water. They’ll also eat other things in there, like insect eggs/larvae. Anything that prevents a mosquito hatching is my friend. 
But like you, I don’t leave critters in there, that’s what the ponds & streams are for (at least the habitable ones that are left).
I try hard not to waste water unnecessarily, since, well, aquatic conservation is my profession, so I avoid frequent dumping of large quantities of water. I keep my troughs free of debris & scrub when they get overly scummy, but horses are not humans & do not require lab-sterile drinking containers. When it’s hot, they drink it down quickly & it’s refreshed often. When it’s not, I don’t fill it up all the way. I use nets that are “retired” from work to regularly skim out things the same way you would a pool or aquarium, this works really well & saves a ton of water waste.
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It was nice and cool (comparatively speaking) last night, so I scooped up all the tadpoles I could and put in a bucket with trough water, then dumped, scrubbed and refilled the trough. I’m sure I didn’t get all the tadpoles, but I hope I got most of them. A black water trough, in the shade, with black tadpoles - those suckers are hard to see.
I did look up the frogs in TN - we have a vast variety of tree frogs. Fascinating. Its the Green and Gray tree frogs I see most often here. Very cute little things they are - for frogs that is. Their eggs can hatch in as little as 3 days.
https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/amp…and-toads.html
The tadpoles were released in our largest pond. At least they have a chance there.
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You probably didn’t hear them bc tiny mouths, so I’ll say THANKS! From the froglets. TN has all kinds of neat herps, and tree frogs are some of the cutest.
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The first summer we were in our farmhouse, we’d be sitting in our living room at night, and suddenly hear this little THUD… then another, and another… And we were like, what the ?!? Finally, I went outside, and low and behold there were these tiny little frogs stuck to outside of the living room windows! I guess the living room lights were attracting insects outside, and the frogs had a better perch stuck to the window. Amazing. My introduction to tree frogs.
And they really are wee little things - about an inch and a half long. The babies are adorable and half that size. And boy can they launch their little selves. We have to be careful with our back door at night - we have accidentally smooshed more than one frog over the years, not seeing that they had latched on to the hinge side of the door. Ooops! :o
I have been unduly startled more than once by a Cope’s Grey Tree Frog suddenly calling while it was nestled up under some siding or an eve & it sounds like it’s in my bedroom (which was previously silent), LOL. The frog (& toad) songs are one of my favourite things about the farm. Not sure where in TN you are, but the funniest calls are the narrow-mouthed toads, they sound just like a bunch of sheep bleating.
Regular strength unscented bleach: I’ve always used 1 oz per 50 gallons of water (4 TBS per 100 gallon tank). All equines alive and well, and you can’t even smell it after you put it in. Recommended amount of bleach for a 55 gallon drum of water for long term storage for human consumption is 1/3 of a cup, so don’t think 4 TBS in 100 gallons is going to hurt a horse. Bleach breaks down in sunlight and when exposed to air, so it’s not going to become more concentrated via evaporation. No worries with bleach use…
^^^ 100%
Sounds like you’ve relocated them which is terrific. If they want to try again in that same trough I would go so far as to simply give it over to them for now and water the horses somewhere else temporarily until the breeding season is over.
G is right. Add some pool chlorine (which is safe for humans and animals) and it will acidify the water just enough to completely discourage frogs and mosquitoes from using the tank for a breeding ground.
Buy the granular chlorine in packets and use about 1/2 cup per 100 gallons. Sprinkle it in a circle around the perimeter of the tank and let it settle to the bottom. Don’t stir the water. The chlorine will dissipate in the air in about 24 hours or so (faster if the tank is in the sun), but the water will remain tipped towards the acid end of the pH scale long enough for the water to stay crystal clean for a week or more. Adding water, or rainwater, will shift the balance back to a neutral pH, so if you notice the water starting to “green up” or get slightly foggy, add another 1/2 chlorine to the tank again to move the pH back towards acidic.
Chlorine does not “build up” in the water, but rather breaks down fairly quickly and goes away fast if your tank is in the sun, less quickly if in the shade.
Your horses will readily drink it, and you might notice that they actually prefer the treated water. You could drink it as well yourself. You’ll also find the tank will remain sparkling clean since acidic pH also discourages algea from growing. A good test of your water’s pH is…if you see algea growing then the water pH is too alkaline.
I’m not a fan of household bleach for water treatment, especially for water troughs exposed to the great outdoors. I think the granular chlorine is better suited as it dissolves more slowly and can be disbursed more evenly throughout the tank. Liquid bleach tends to concentrate where it is poured unless the water is stirred to dilute the chemical.
My horses seem to prefer the green water with tadpoles to the fresh clean water. Go figure. If you don’t mind other swing things, put a couple of goldfish in the tank and they will eat eggs and maybe tadpoles too, plus algae.
Yes, I have heard about goldfish/carp in the water trough. A college friend of mine swears by them. But what do you do in winter? My troughs aren’t heated, so they’d die. Can’t put them in my pond over winter, because I’d never get them back out… and they’d multiply like crazy the next year and eventually eat everything. And that wouldn’t be good either. So I decided many years ago that I couldn’t buy a creature only to know it would freeze to death 6 months later. Nope, can’t do that. :no:
I have been much more proactive about taking every single little tiny leaf, every smidge of a blade of grass, every wisp of hay out twice a day - so there is nothing to attach the eggs to. So far, no new clutch of tadpoles - but it may just be too late for the little frogs to be breeding (or too hot).
Our horse will not touch his water if it has tadpoles. My husband says he is just spoiled, but we have to clean his trough frequently.
I deliberately keep tadpoles in my troughs. Usually have tadpoles from now until the first freeze. They are excellent at cleaning out my troughs. I have a 400 gallon trough/kids swimming pool and it rains almost daily. The trough stays full and I hate having to empty it and scrub it out- as you have to climb in there to really get it clean. I just scoop out the leaves and debris and the tadpoles remove the algae.
My horses prefer that big trough as the water stays cool. I actually had one of my horses refuse to drink from other sources- she only wants water straight from the hose or the big trough.
If I do decide to drain it- I scoop out the tadpoles into a bucket- drain the water and refill. I will say tadpoles are hardier then fish - they don’t get killed if you switch the water on them.
My troughs stay cleaner this way- short of bleaching everything every week. They really do an excellent job of removing all the algae. And less work for me.
