How to Make a Toad House for Your Garden

Attract Bug-Eating Toads to Your Garden

By
Erin Huffstetler
Erin Huffstetler

Erin Huffstetler is a frugal living expert who has been writing for over 10 years about easy ways to save money at home.

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Updated on 03/31/24
Reviewed by
Amanda Rose Newton
Amanda Rose Newton
Reviewed by Amanda Rose Newton

Amanda Rose Newton is a pest specialist and horticulture expert, reviewing pest control and gardening content for The Spruce's Cleaning and Gardening Review Board. Her passion for pest control and sustainable gardening allows her to review plant and pest content for best practices and accuracy. She is a board-certified entomologist and volunteers for USAIDs Farmer to Farmer program. She is a professor of Horticulture, an Education Specialist, and a pest specialist.

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Toad sitting on large rock slabs

The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

Project Overview
  • Working Time: 30 mins - 1 hr
  • Total Time: 3 - 6 hrs
  • Yield: One toad house
  • Skill Level: Kid-friendly
  • Estimated Cost: $0 to $40

Inviting toads to take up residence in your garden is easily done with a simple toad house you can make yourself. Why would you want to give your toads a home? A little-known fact is that a single toad consumes thousands of bugs a year, so a natural alternative to pesticides is a garden full of toads. Along with bugs, toads eat slugs that chomp on your vegetable plants and flowers. The best part is they provide this pest control without harming your vegetation themselves.

It's quick and easy to build a toad house and encourage this free form of pest control. Toads can live for years, and once they discover the house you've built, they will become a permanent part of your outdoor family menagerie. Read on to gather ideas on making your own toad house to protect your garden.

What exactly is a toad?

A toad is a particular type of frog that spends most of its lifecycle on land rather than in the water. But toads are still amphibious creatures that reproduce and develop in water, so for them to thrive they need a marsh or pond or another wetland area in the vicinity.

When to Build a Toad House

Toad houses in the garden will be most effective if they are available when toads have finished with the early summer breeding season and are actively feeding on bugs and preparing for winter hibernation. In early summer, many toads have migrated to nearby marshes, ponds, bogs, or streams where they are mating, but as summer progresses, they will move into surrounding areas in search of insects, and then begin to look for places to burrow underground to overwinter.

A toad house positioned in a shady area of your garden where there is a nearby source of daily moisture will very likely draw at least one toad, and possibly many, into your garden. A healthy toad can easily live a decade or more, so your new visitor may soon become a permanent resident who pays rent each garden season by consuming as many as 10,000 grubs, beetles, and other damaging insects.

Before Getting Started

Before you begin, learn what kinds of toads live around you. Native North American toad species generally migrate to and from the ponds and lakes where they were born; therefore, transporting toads from a distant location to your own garden may well be a genetic death sentence. Toads can migrate several miles on their own, but it is irresponsible to move a native toad a long distance from a potential breeding area.

The better strategy is to create an environment that is friendly to the species of toads already found in your area. It's not a good idea to bring in any wild creatures to your garden that are not already native to your region. They are unlikely to thrive and reproduce and could even become an invasive menace to native species.

Instead, allow native toads to find your garden naturally. Any garden with plenty of low-growing plants, mulch or leaf litter covering the ground, and sheltering areas such as brush piles, fallen logs, or stumps will be attractive to these lumpy, warty bug predators. Remember, too, that although toads don't live in water, they still need a source of nearby moisture, even during times of the year when mating is not underway. A toad house located near a rain gutter downspout or underneath the drip spout of an air conditioner will be quite attractive to them.

Materials and tools to build a toad house

The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

What You'll Need

Materials

  • Old flower pot, plastic container, or coffee can
  • Handful of leaves
  • Paint (optional)

Instructions

  1. Make or Buy a "Toad Abode"

    Create a cozy, dark, cool, moist cavern as your "toad abode" using simple methods such as:

    • Cover a simple ground hollow with an old wooden board.
    • Use a leftover clay flower pot, plastic container or metal coffee can.
    • Purchase a decorative clay container designed as a toad house.

    Paint your toad abode with non-toxic paint and label it "toad house" so uninformed visits don't disturb it or toss it out. Alternatively, you can paint your new garden home green so it blends in.

    Sign marking the outside of toad house

    The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

  2. Choose a Location

    Find a shady spot in your garden and dig a hole that is large enough to accommodate your container when it is lying on its side. Avoid any area that gets too much direct sunlight, which can make the toad house uncomfortably warm.

    The best location will also have a source of water nearby. A toad house located near a landscape pond, a rain garden runoff area, or even near a rain gutter downspout can be attractive to toads.

    Tip

    If you're lacking natural water sources, even a saucer of water will do the trick. Sink it down into the soil and fill it with water. Just make sure to check it every day or so to make sure the container has some water in it.

    Dirt hole dug up with shovel for toad house

    The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

    White saucer filled with water for toad house

    The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

  3. Position the Toad House

    Drop the container into the hole and bury the bottom half in the dirt. Toads like to burrow, so it's important to create a solid, straight dirt floor. It is even better if you are using a broken pot with the gap located on the floor of the toad house. Just be sure to leave enough space for the toads to enter.

    Bottom half of clay pot buried in dirt for toad house

    The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

  4. Furnish the Home

    Grab a handful of leaves and stick them inside the container. The leaves serve as bedding material and their addition completes the toad house building process.

    If you want to get super fancy—and take being bug-free one step further—you can add a toad light to the garden to attract insects.

    Leaves placed in container as bedding material for toad house

    The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

Protecting Your Toads

If you have pets, you may need to make some effort to keep them away from your toad house. Curious dogs and cats may harass these creatures.

Toads are also subject to natural predators. Various snakes and birds may feed on toads, though these amphibians typically excrete substances that make them foul-tasting to most predators. But think twice about tolerating garden snakes or birds of prey in your garden if your goal is a toad-friendly environment.

Finally, remember that your toads survive by eating bugs, so it's best to restrict or eliminate your use of chemical pesticides. You don't want your toads to starve or to consume bugs that are contaminated with chemicals.

5 Tips for Keeping Pests Out of Your Garden



The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. How Can I Attract Toads?. Oregon State University Extension.

  2. How to Dote on Toads. National Wildlife Federation.