How to Keep Frogs off Your Porch
Everybody needs a comfortable home, an excellent porch to stand and watch your neighbors. This is until frogs come in, jump on you, and scare the hell out of you. Frogs are amphibians; a combination of water and soil is preferable for their habitat. It is very unattractive to find these pesky amphibians on your porch. The loud croaking noise frogs make at night is very disruptive and annoying. You cannot sleep peacefully at night. But how do I keep frogs off the porch?
Frogs feed on insects that may be readily available on your porch. Turn off the lights, maintain cleanliness, and get rid of any stagnant water, or putting proper drainage, spaying insects repellants will reduce food-insect availability for the frogs that may end up keeping them off the porch.
Other people might want to drive them away to set aside or specific location for them, or even kill the frogs. The best way to keep them away from your porch is to find out what brings them or what that attracts frogs to your porch.
What brings frogs on the porch?
Finding frogs on your porch is an indication that there is something that is attracting them. Frogs find refuge on your porch because it’s convenient and well protected. The place may have food that they will feed on.
Below are some of the things that draw frogs towards your porch;
- Stagnant water or running water is one of the most convenient places or environments for frogs to lay their eggs.
- Insects draw frogs towards them because frogs feed on them.
- Insects are drawn to bright lighting. Therefore, frogs will be attracted to feed on insects if there is a good insect population on your porch
- Tallgrass and weeds. These serve as frogs and toads hiding places for shelter purposes.
How to keep frogs off your porch
Some remedies will help you keep these pesky animals off your porch. These are some of the things you can do:
Turn Off Lights At Night.
You might have noticed that insects love buzzing around lights at night. When lighting bulbs are installed outside our homes, it automatically attracts insects when they are bright at night.
Frogs are amphibians that feed on insects; therefore, it might not take long for frogs to notice a good supply of food when lights are on at night. Turn off outdoor lights, and these will not draw insects to your porch, thus keeping frogs away from your porch.
Proper Drainage
As it is known, frogs require a considerable amount of water to stay alive. Without a steady amount of water, frogs may not reproduce.
Tadpoles hatched on the water will not be able to swim to the surface when there is no sufficient water. To ensure your porch is free from frogs, cut off an unnecessary supply of water on your porch.
Clean Up Your Porch
Tallgrass and weeds attract frogs to your porch. They act as hiding places for frogs and toads to shelter.
The solution is to cut off tall grass and weed the porch properly. A neat and clean porch keeps frogs and toads away.
Make a Home for the Frogs.
Amphibians such as frogs and toads are harmless creatures. They can be handy when kept at the correct places. One of the known importance of frogs is that they help reduce the insect population because they feed on them.
So, instead of finding a solution to killing them or driving them away from your porch, you might consider finding them a new home. These new homes can be the garden or backyard. Capture the frogs and drive them to your place of choice. These frogs will help reduce the insect population within your compound.
Maintain a Clean Porch
This is where you keep your porch unattractive to frogs. Maintain it clean by removing cobwebs, spider webs, old shoes, utensils, and any other untidy things on your porch.
Ensure that the grass is kept tidy. This way, frogs will have no place to hide, no insects to eat. Therefore, the environment will turn unfriendly to them, and eventually, the frogs will relocate and leave your porch.
Best Frog Repellent
Frog repellents are the fastest way to get rid of frogs and toads within your porch. This method is crucial, and it can cause harm or kill the frogs because it involves the use of chemical components. The following are the best three frog repellents;
1. Insect Repellent
Insect repellent includes insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides. These chemically manufactured products are used to kill and control insects, weeds, and pastes within your porch.
Two types of insecticides will help drive away frogs, they include;
i. Insecticides and pesticides
Untidy and swampy areas within your porch will attract these insects like mosquitoes and flies. These insects will buzz around then draw frogs’ attention to your porch.
Purchase one of the insecticides and pesticides in a garden store within your area. Use the manufactures’ instructions written on the bottle or paper inside the package to apply the product.
Using a spray bottle, spray the areas where you see most insects concentrate. These chemicals will get rid of the insects, thus driving frogs away as there will be nothing left for them to feed. While using this chemical, ensure to wear gloves and masks to keep yourself safe from harm.
ii. Herbicides
Herbicides will also help in weeding plants within your porch. These plants and weeds act as frogs and toads shelter on your porch.
Also, purchase one of the herbicides in the nearest garden store. Read the manufactures instructions to get the portions required.
Use a spray bottle to spray the weeds on your porch; the weeds are an extended shelter for the frogs on your porch.
While using this chemical, ensure to wear gloves and masks to keep yourself safe from harm.
2. Snake Repellent
A snake repellent is a product used by pest control professionals to drive away snakes. Snake repellents contain a chemical called mothballs as an active ingredient, and this ingredient also drives frogs away.
The unpleasant smell of naphthalene chemicals found in mothballs will not give the frogs a favorable environment on your porch; thus, it will drive them away.
Purchase any snake repellent in a garden store near where you live. Follow manufactures’ instructions to place them in strategic locations within your porch. Mostly, they are placed where the frogs are commonly seen.
Snake repellents may not be commonly recommended because it contains chemicals that can be harmful to human health. Children may be all over, including the porch; thus, it will not be safe to place snake repellents in your porch area.
3. Vinegar Solution
Although vinegar is not a commercial chemical frog repellent, it is a homemade solution that works effectively as a frog repellent. Vinegar is one of our household’s products that we use to clean, and it is also be consumed in moderate amounts.
Ethanol is a robust solution of alcohol and spirit that is fermented with water to make vinegar. It contains acetic acid and small traces of chemicals that are human-friendly and can be consumed.
Depending on the size of your porch, here is how to prepare the vinegar solution to keep frogs off it.
- Take equal amounts of water and vinegar and put them in a jar
- Mix the solution well by stirring or shaking the jar
- Using a funnel, transfer the solution into a clean spray bottle
- Directly spray the mixture into the targeted areas where the frogs like to shelter on your porch
- Repeat spraying the site daily to ensure the frogs don’t come back
The vinegar solution will cause a burning sensation on the frog’s and toad’s feet. The frogs will be able to move away and relocate to a different area outside your porch. The mixture will not harm the frogs. Instead, it will drive them away from your porch.
4. Heat
Heat is not a chemical, but you can use it to drive frogs off your porch. Where there is stagnant water, frogs tend to lay their eggs and reproduce. When a proper amount of heat is applied to the area, it will kill the eggs and the tadpoles.
The frogs will not be able to reproduce. They will move away from that affected place, and the stagnant water will no longer be a friendly environment. This method does not require chemicals, but it’s a simple way to drive frogs off your porch.
