# why are frogs/toads climbing on my windows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161 "2014-09-01T15:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/1 "2014-09-01T15:56:55Z")
Living in Ann Arbor. Many evenings this summer (after dark), wife and I have noticed frogs or toads climbing on our windows. It’s been a relatively cool/damp summer this year, which might explain their tendency to roam, but why specifically on our windows? It doesn’t seem to be the light, because a couple of times we’ve come home after dark and spotted them on the windows as soon as we turned the lights on. It doesn’t seem to specifically be the glass. We’ve seen one repeatedly on the glass above our front door, but we’ve seen others on the screens over windows on the back of the house (one had climbed to a second-floor window). So what’s the deal? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/2 "2014-09-01T16:19:17Z")
easy place to stay. bugs (food) go there. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/3 "2014-09-01T17:45:12Z")
Most of the frogs’ predators live on the ground, so the side of your house is a safe place. In the damp summer, the snakes are probably getting fat. Some kinds of frogs climb up trees and such to sing their songs of love at night. You could holler at them about, “You’re tree frogs, not house frogs, dagnabbit!” I don’t think they’d respect your opinion, though. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/4 "2014-09-01T18:10:49Z")
Kiss each one in turn to see if anything happens. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/5 "2014-09-01T18:18:03Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > It’s been a relatively cool/damp summer this year, which might explain their tendency to roam, but why specifically on our windows? Is the inside of your house warmer than the outside air in the evenings? If so, the house will be losing heat primarily through the windows, whether glass or screened. The frogs may gravitate to the windows because they are comparatively warm. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/6 "2014-09-01T18:34:14Z")
So, who have you pissed off to be subject to this plague of frogs? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/7 "2014-09-01T18:44:00Z")
They’re the advanced guard for the oncoming assault by giant amphibians, which have long lain dormant in Lakes Michigan and Lake Erie. They will be coming soon… ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/8 "2014-09-01T19:35:01Z")
When dinner falls after sunset, we are always treated to quite a show, as the geckos climb the kitchen window screen and devour the insects attracted to the kitchen light… ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/9 "2014-09-01T20:33:57Z")
I’m not sure why they are climbing on the screens. Have you looked around the foundation for any openings or holes? If you do find some, try and look inside with a flashlight. I suspect you will find some Hot Wheels or RC cars, because obviously something is driving the frogs up the wall. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/10 "2014-09-01T20:59:09Z")
I am also in SE Michigan and [shield/stink bugs](http://www.gardensafari.net/english/shieldbugs.htm) are out in force right now; late summer and early fall is when they gravitate to homes. They’re early this year because it’s been cooler and rainier than usual. So **johnposts** ’ quick response is probably right on: The bugs that frogs like to eat are proliferating. Hence, more frogs. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/11 "2014-09-01T23:39:25Z")
This year we’ve been seeing a number of green tree frogs, apparently [Hyla cineria](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Green_Tree_Frog_(Hyla_cinerea)_(23701968).jpg). They were common when we lived in southeast Texas but I never saw them in Ohio before. They like to perch high up in my potted tropical plants, where they are presumably safe(r) from predators and there are bugs to eat (I saw one tree frog about an inch and a half long clinging to the side of the garage this afternoon; most are smaller). They are **not** supposed to be native to Ohio - the closest part of their natural range is southern Illinois and they mostly live in southern states. We just had one of the colder winters in memory and it’s been a fairly temperate summer, so I’m not sure climate change is responsible for their appearance this year. Maybe amphibians _are_ on the march. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/12 "2014-09-01T23:57:23Z")
Wouldn’t that be “on the hop”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![robinspeltright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@robinspeltright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinspeltright)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2021, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/13 "2021-08-08T05:22:34Z")
Is that an equasion…frogs _over_ toads? … toads, divided by frogs…? or is it a new species, like the coywolf in ontario (serious). If you’re in michigan and it sticks to your window it’s a tree frog, so… Do you mean "why are tree frogs climbing on MY windows (instead of my neighbor’s windows or a mountain, don’t these frogs know who I am)? or… Do you mean "why are tree frogs climbing on my WINDOWS (or the rest of my house)? If it’s this latter question you’re asking, then: I assume the rest of your house is not made of glass? if it were… they wouldn’t stick to just the windows. Take a toilet plunger and try and stick it to a cement or brick wall on your house, or a plank of wood on your shed or cottage, or the siding of a trailer… doesn’t stick, unless you’re trailer looks like one of those big silver hotdogs. But if you push a suction onto a window, or a one square-foot bathroom tile, you get a tight farting noise as you shrink the air pocket, and create a vaccuum, which holds the plunger in place. The frogs fingers are made of little suction cups. So the answer is… They climb your windows because they can ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/14 "2021-08-08T13:03:59Z")
I feel like 7 years is probably long enough to read the whole of the OP and understand the question ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2021, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-frogs-toads-climbing-on-my-windows/697161/15 "2021-08-08T13:15:54Z")
I would welcome the return of green tree frogs. Haven’t seen any here in Kentucky yet.