Last summer my daughters caught several tadpoles at a local pond. One lasted little more than a few days, another metamorphosed in a couple of weeks and was released back into his pond.
The other tadpole, Gus, spent nearly a year in Melissa's fish tank. Over the months, Gus ate and grew, but showed no signs of "frogging" until about 6-8 weeks ago. I had no idea that some frogs, namely bullfrogs, take up to two years to metamorphose.
Just last week, Gus completed his metamorphosis and was released back into the pond of his birth.
We had planned to say a slow and fond farewell, but the recent flooding here in Iowa has created a plague of mosquitoes. Almost as soon as we stepped out of the car, we were surrounded by swirling clouds - literally - of voracious mosquitoes.
Gus was somewhat unceremoniously dumped back in the pond and we ran back to the car, covered in itchy, red welts.
At least we know Gus will have plenty to eat!
1 comment:
Oh, you reminded me of how bad those mosquitoes were this year at Ashworth. We were chased by them too. We went swimming and had to get undressed and jump into the pool as fast as possible to avoid being eat alive. I bet Gus is a 50lb bullfrog by now.
yandqdju
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