Toads digging holes in pots

PepperDaddler

PepperDaddler

So I have been noticing holes in my pots. The culprit has to be a toad. When I go out on the porch at night (where the plants are) I can see him sitting in the pots. This is frustrating because I am just starting seedlings and he keeps messing them up and digging them up. When I go out in the daytime and see the holes it makes me mad. I dont know whether to try to level the dirt out again or leave it the way it is. All of the seedlings have just broke ground and are not big enough to take any stress. I feel like if I level the holes back out it will push the seeds I am still waiting on further into the soil and they wont grow. I should mention some of the seedlings are now gone. Out of about thirty pots there are holes in half of them and growing every day.
 
Does anyone know of anything I can do. I dont want to but if I find the toad out in the pots again I may have to "transplant" him.
 
I don't mind them. They don't bother the plants at all and they are my insect control. 

The whole "Knocking over seedlings thing sucks". Maybe just put some Harry's Coon Mats on the surface of the soil? If they can stop coons they can stop frogs
 
If it's one of Florida's plague of introduced cane toads, you should probably save time and give up now.  Those things are indefatigable monsters; it's like trying to argue with raccoons.
 
He's probably *in* one of the holes during the day, I would think; if you can figure out which one, maybe you can separate that pot out to a different area and hope the toad leaves the rest of the seedlings alone.  Or send the whole pot, toad and all, by slow boat to China?
 
-NT
 
Edit: kidding aside now.
 
Maybe you can mulch the top with something uncomfortable like pine needles. Or mulch with a thin layer of small/medium rocks so he can't burrow in?
 
But if he really is an invasive, then maybe you should dispatch him. Hard to say because he can also help by eating a bunch of pests like stink bugs etc. 
 
All kidding aside, I expect the guilty toad really is using one of those holes to hide out in during the day---have you checked for that?
 
-NT
 
I live in queensland australia and we have a pretty sizeable problem with cane toads. Last year all my seedlings were getting caned (pun intended) by the warty brown vermin. I did indeed move on about 10 toads a night untill that number doubled. They are classified as a noxious pest here so I culled them. Picked em up put em in a bag and wacked em in the freezer, problem solved. Took two weeks before I was going hunting for them and coming up with nothing.
 
It was what I suspected after all, found him in a hole this morning 10 minutes ago. I moved him around the block. I dont think they have very good memories seeing how he could never even use the same hole twice to sleep in. As I wrote in another post, I hope he wont find his way back.
 
Now I have a new problem.
 
The toad is gone for now, but I found an armyworm munching on a brain strain seedling. Hasnt even got true leaves yet and probably wont make it now .
 
Fortunately I dont "relocate" worms.
 
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