I have previously written about my traumatic encounter with a toad while mowing the grass.

Almost daily, I see those buggers hopping around, and I continue to live in fear of stepping on one or much, much worse, mowing over one.

MY friend VC suggested that I try to move the toad who lives under the gutter to a safer place, and while the thought makes me shudder, I started to consider it. They catch oodles of bugs, and this is already a bad year for mosquitos.

I decided, if I know the toad is lurking somewhere in my garden, I’ll be prepared to see his warty old self and won’t have a heart attack or scream like I’m being attacked, frightening my neighbors and making my kids laugh at me. (For as skittish as I am about toads, they are thrilled when they run into one.)

Enter “Operation Toad Habitat.”

Step 1: Research toad houses.
Step 2: Create two toad houses by burying two plastic pots halfway in my garden, creating a dark, damp, cool tunnel for the toads to reside in.

Home is where the toads are.

Step 3: Instruct the kids catch and move any rogue yard toads to the new habitat.

On day 3 of this operation, I haven’t noticed any new inhabitants who have found the houses on their own, and the kids (of course) haven’t seen any random hoppers.

I will follow up on this endeavor.

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