I enjoyed Editor Steve Bouser's July 15 column on the toad. I have liked toads for years. If you have them around, there are likely no snakes. Snakes will eat toads.

Putting out a container of water provides joy to a toad. It will hop in and cool off for awhile.

Toads eat mosquitoes and other insects. They use the soil to cool off and hide. Have you ever seen one squirm to put itself into the cool soil (usually shady) as it used its body to place itself down into a hiding place, or to wait for an insect?

Fear causes toads to expel urine if handled. They also hibernate in the dirt. Most amusing is to see the baby toads in springtime -- about an inch in length, usually around a body of water.

In spring, after the frogs spew their eggs into the water, the killdeer make many meals of them, until they get their fill. You might hear the first frogs early in springtime on very warm days. Be happy you have a toad or a frog.

Victoria Weaver

Aberdeen