Why are there toads in my window wells?

While working in the yard this weekend, I noticed there was a toad down in one of my window wells. Upon closer examinations, there was not one toad, but SIX toads! A quick check of a few other window wells turned up one more.

What's the deal? I could see one stray toad hopping in and not being able to get out, but seven?!? These guys were all the same species - light tan, with darker brown spots & stripes. Did they indeed get stuck in my window wells, and if I didn't rescue them (well, at least some of them) would they die? Or are they somehow living & breeding down there?

BTW, I live in Colorado, and don't remember ever seeing toads around my house before. I would've thought the lack of water and extreme heat lately would cook 'em. I guess not.

I grew up in a Chicago suburb, and one of the biggest delights of childhood was finding toads in the window wells. We collected dozens and dozens of them.
Thee environment is ideal for them. They like to hide under the leaves that collect in there, down where the soil is damp and cool (try looking under the leaves- you'll find more toads burrowed down into the dirt with just their noses sticking out), and there are plenty of bugs for them to eat. The hotter the weather, the more likely your toads will seek out a dark, cool place. Plus, there are other toads for socialization, if that's important to them, and very little risk of being stepped on or run over by a lawnmower. I think a toad could live in a window well all its life and be perfectly happy except for one thing: they didn't seem to breed in there. As far as I can tell, toads need water for the tadpoles to survive, and I never saw a tadpole in a window well.

Now that I think about it, certain window wells consistently turned up large numbers of toads, whereas other window wells rarely contained any. This would indicate that toads preferred some locations over others and either went in there on purpose or were able to leave window wells that turned out to be unsuitable.

As for "rescuing" them, I don't think it's necessary. They really like the wells; when we collected toads, several of them would always escape and hop right back into the window well.

Do toads even have a tadpole stage?

I grew up in a Chicago suburb too, but alas, I never found any toads in our window wells :-(

Hmmm... so I'm not alone in this phenomena. How do they get water? I have several window wells around my house, and interestingly enough, the only ones with the toads are the ones that the sprinkler system doesn't hit. It's practically a desert out here, so I don't think there's enough rain to keep 'em going. Maybe toads get enough water from the bugs they eat?

This is cool. I like the toads, and I hope that rescuing them didn't scare 'em off if they really truly want to live in my window wells. It's especially cool since my boyfriend is terrified of 'em. I can terrorize him now! Yay!

Any animal is going to thrive where the environmental factors are favorable. Even though it doesn't seem as if there is enough moisture in your window wells for toads to survive, since they are proving you wrong, you must be wrong! :-)

Environmental factors are subject to change, and you may not find the toads in the future, but enjoy them for now. They're getting all the light, water, food and protection they need for the time being.


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The Dave-Guy
"since my daughter's only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?" J.H. Marx

How could anyone be scared of a toad?
Yes, they have a tadpole stage. I think that pollywogs and tadpoles are different: one is frog, the other toad. Which is which?

"It's practically a desert out here, so I don't think there's enough rain to keep 'em going."
Toads don't need much water; notice their skin is thick and dry. The relatively moist soil in a window well is adequate to keep them content. Frogs have to live in/near water; their skin is thin and slimy and they'd shrivel up in a toad-friendly environment. Both need water for mating and hatching eggs. The pond at the end of our street was ideal for this purpose and yes, toads eggs do hatch into tadpoles. Or pollywogs. I think the difference in terms is a regional variance, but I could be wrong.

This is driving me crazy. Am I the only person on earth who doesn't know what a window well is?

[/quote] This is driving me crazy. Am I the only person on earth who doesn't know what a window well is? [/quote]

No! I'm lost, too. :::admitting ignorance:::

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"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

"English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England."

(A) A window well a structure that allows you to build basement windows below ground level. You dig a hole next to the wall on the outside, sink a window down there and line the hole with metal. I'm sure you've seen them.

(B) I'd imagine a couple toads could live happily down there. There's food, moisture under the leaves, the occassional worm and bug to munch upon. It's certainly no worse than living in a terrarium. Plus it's cool and safe from things that eat toads. However, I can't imagine a toad actually choosing to live down there intentionally. Toads are exceptionally bright as far as I can tell, and will happily jump off ledges. I'd think your average toad is never elevated enough for this to be an issue, but when it comes to window wells, I'm sure they jump down and get stuck. I don't know if you're "saving" them, but you can consider it doing them a favor since they can't breed down there and there has to be a finite amount of worms and bugs.

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

Well, the toads might be bright, but I'm not. Make that statement "Toads aren't exceptionally bright.."

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

The window wells without toads may have been recently predated upon by a snake. The wells WITH toads are more than likely just pre-predator areas. The toads probably do nicely in them, but can't get out when invaded by a snake.
There are clear plastic "bubbles" that will prevent animals from getting into the wells.

FixedBack

ARrgggh!!!! So now there's not only toads, but SNAKES in my window wells?!? How do THEY get down there (and up again?)

Next think you know I'm gonna have penguins down there. A virtual menagerie!

Time: 10:59 MST

# Toads in Window Well that I removed toads from yesterday : 0

# Toads in Window Well that I did not remove toads from yesterday: 1

# Snakes in Window Wells: 0

# other beings, including but not limited to penguins, flamingos, frogs, etc.: 2 plastic pink flamingos that blew down there last year that I haven't rescued yet. Maybe they're eating the toads.


Conclusions:

The toads I rescued did not jump right back down, even though I put them right on top where they easily could jump down if they so desired. Unless, of course, they're hiding. As my means of detection was a flashlight pointed through the window into the window well (no WAY am I gonna climb down there in the dark! There might be snakes!) they could have easily hidden.

Can you tell this is bugging me WAY more than it should? I need to get covers for my window wells so I no longer worry about the poor creatures that may be dying down there.

Thanks, Jophiel, I am now slightly less ignorant. But...

What is the point of the things? Okay, it's so you can have windows below ground level, but when you look out one of those windows you see what? The inside of a hole? How deep are these things if a toad can't get out? Do they pose a danger to wandering children? Don't they fill up with water when it rains? My mind is boggling here. Wouldn't it be easier to have a basement with no windows?

What is the point of the things? Okay, it's so you can have windows below ground level, but when
you look out one of those windows you see what? The inside of a hole? How deep are these things if
a toad can't get out? Do they pose a danger to wandering children? Don't they fill up with water when
it rains? My mind is boggling here. Wouldn't it be easier to have a basement with no windows?

I'm no expert in window wells, but I'll take a crack at this.

Well, basements get very musty and dank, and it would seem to me that window wells provide a source of ventilation and sunlight to improve the situation slightly. I grew up in an area where there weren't many window wells since the housing style put most foundations a foot or so over ground level, meaning most houses used those small windows as opposed to windo wells.

As far as kids falling in, my brother (who garnered the nickname "baseball head" for his alarming number of head injuries as a child) fell in one and was knocked unconsious for some time. So it does happen.

The wells are really not very deep, usually say a foot and a half, and since they're right up against the house and kids know where they are (as a result of toad catching experiments), accidents are unlikely. As Jayron pointed out, it can happen, though.

Athena: "I need to get covers for my window wells so I no longer worry about the poor creatures that may be dying down there."
This may cheer you up a bit: only once did I ever find a dead toad in a window well. I was a weird kid, and I checked these wells daily (sometimes more often) in the summer, so if ever a toad died in there I would have found it before it decomposed.
Of course, that doesn't eliminate the possibility that they toads were being eaten by snakes. Where I grew up, we had only garter snakes and grass snakes, and I rarely even saw those in my yard. Do these snakes eat toads?
Does anything eat full grown toads? Even my dog wouldn't taste them.

Athena,

I grew up in the desert part of Colorado. We had tons of toads which bred in the irrigation ditches and canals off of the Colorado River.

My house didn't have a basement, hence no window wells. But we did have a crawl space that had a few vent holes made from the same bricks as the rest of the house, just turned sideways.

Toads were always venturing out into the yard at night when it was cool. Then when Mr. Sun came up, they headed for the closest cool area, including the north side of our house. Inevitably, some would explore the vent hole, go too far, and be stuck 3 ft down in our crawl space. Unless they were supertoads, they would be stuck down there.

My dad and I went down there twice a year to clean the furnace. There were always dozens of toad skeletons awaiting us. (Sorry to bum you out.)

This was fortunate for one of our cats, Synbad. He once got in a big fight and disappeared for about a month. Turns out he camped out in the crawlspace and ate toads until he was recovered.

I'd suggest putting some sort of screen over the window wells.

The other reason to have window wells is if you want to finish your basement & put some bedrooms down there. I believe building code states that a bedroom must have a window large enough to crawl out of in case of fire. Thus, a basement with no windows could not legally contain any bedrooms.

My window wells are quite a bit deeper than 1.5 feet. I didn't measure, but I'm thinking 4 or 5 feet. They're deep enough that I need a ladder to get in and out of 'em. Incidentally, they also allow quite a bit of light into the basement. Kinda nice, really.

I think I'm gonna free that last toad tonight, and keep on the lookout for more critters lost in the wells. Who knows what I might find?

Your window wells are 4 or 5 feet deep?!? Wow! In that case, it would definitely be likely for your toads to get trapped down there. Or for kids to fall in and brain themselves. Those plexiglass bubbles sound like a good idea for you.

This is cool. Apparently I have managed to live 41 years in complete ignorance of these commonplace things (window wells). I feel like George Bush when he saw the supermarket scanner :)

Never mind the plexiglas covers for the window wells. Anyone who has any weight at all (a 7-year-old child, f'rinstance) would crash through it pretty easily. If you're really concerned about the danger of people falling into your 4 - 5 foot window wells, you should consider some sort of metal grating. Older houses in areas like Yonkers and Riverdale, in the Bronx, have them. I'm sorta surprised there isn't some sort of building code requiring them for wells of a certain depth.

They can be treacherous. I've inadvertently stepped in one or two that were covered by ivy, pachysandra (sp?), etc. while I was measuring a house. I've not been seriously hurt, but a person could easily sprain an ankle or break a leg, and you'd be liable.

Just some friendly advice from ---


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The Dave-Guy
"since my daughter's only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?" J.H. Marx

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I should cover 'em. I've lived in this house for 2 years, and I knew 2 years ago I should cover them. As I have no children, and have no friends with children, I've been lax. Besides, those metal things cost money!

I thought the plexiglass bubbles were sturdy. We used to jump on them at my best friend's house and we never so much as cracked one. Of course, we weren't bright enough to foresee the possiblility that they might break and even if we had, the wells were only a couple feet deep.
I'm sure the metal grates would be more secure, but they'll block some of the light from your windows and unless the mesh is pretty fine it won't stop critters from getting down there. Naturally, security for neighborhood kids (and security from lawsuits) is probably more important than the fate of toads.

The window wells in the house I grew up in, were more for water control than anything else. The wells were about a foot deep, and the windows were just at ground level, so the wells were more to keep water from leaking through the windows in a storm, than to allow light in.


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>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry....unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<

---The dragon observes

Where I grew up, we had only garter snakes and grass snakes, and I rarely even saw those in my yard. Do these snakes eat toads?
Does anything eat full grown toads?

I have a JPG of two snakes trying to eat the same toad at one time. Since one snake was terribly smaller than the other one, I feared that the big snake would swallow the toad, little snake and all. I interfered by bothering the smaller snake, and convincing him to let go.

FixedBack

I'll come and have the toads for a snack.No snakes, please.

sun¤bear

Athena

What a wonderful conundrum...perhaps you could build a little ladder of rocks for them to climb on.

I have a similar experience. We bought our home 11 years ago and one of the first things we discovered was that we had small frogs using our bathroom plumbing as a transit system. They were coming through the overflow drain in the tub. Not in numbers, just 1 (once in a while 2) coming in and sitting in the tub, or on the shower wall, until one of us took a shower. At first, it was a bit disarming, but being the mother of 2 boys, who found it "cool", I also adjusted quickly. We, naively, thought it to be the same frog returning daily on his travels. We named "him" Kermit and simply carried him to the garden when it was time to shower. The next year came Kermit Jr. and now, 11 years later, I can safely say we have carried hundreds (maybe thousands) of different frogs to our garden to dine on our bugs. With the exception of having to close our shower door tightly after a shower ( my husband is a Viet Nam vet and can't sleep at night if he thinks any critter might be lurking) our lives have only been affected in the positive. If you ever needed a lesson in life perservering or in the fact that all things have a purpose in life...I mean!! All these different little family members, travelling the same route, year in and year out...they must be doing something; perhaps simply living and I say...Carry On!!
Lew

My house didn't have a basement, hence no window wells. But we did have a crawl space that had a few vent holes made from the same bricks as the rest of the house, just turned sideways.

I once roomed in a townhouse with both a basement and a crawl space. The building was origninally a 2 bedroom 1 bath and an additional bedroom & bath was later added on to the ground floor, the crawl space was under this extension. I once rescued a young squirrel from our laundry room; it must have got in via the crawl space and gut stuck in there. Fortunately, my mom once raised a baby squirrel that had been orphaned by a hurricane so I knew exactly how to handle our visitor in the basement. I slipped on my heavy winter gloves, grabbed the squirrel after a brief chase, brought it upstairs and released it out the kitchen door.

I now rent a unit on the top floor of a garden apartment building. Twice in the five years I've been here, we've had a bird trapped in the stairwell. The first was small, probably a nuthatch, so I opened my door and let it in. I put on my gloves and trapped the bird in the bathroom, picked it up in one hand and put it out the kitchen window. A few days before, the screens in my unit had been removed for maintenance; the one in my kitchen still hasn't been put back in! The second bird was a crow and I let animal control deal with that one!

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"Age is mind over matter; if you don't mind, it don't matter." -Leroy "Satchel" Paige