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By WILLIAM J. O'NEILL
National (j**o£raphic News
One of the best assistants a gardener can employ works for no pay.
The homely toad is a relentless exterminator. Its fast-draw tongue, uncoiling quicker than the eye can see, plucks harmful insects off flowers, vegetables, grass, or leaves, and even snaps them out of the air in mid-flight.
Emerging from hibernation in the spring, a hungry toad will eat up to 10,000 insects in three months. Cutworms, flies, grubs, sowbugs. caterpillars, grasshoppers and beetles are all in its diet.
Strategically Located
Naturalist Paul Zahl says either a toad or a frog can do the job equally well and both are ‘‘strategically located" to snare insects at ground level that birds sometimes miss.
“The toad is a natural insect trap." Dr. Zahl said. "Sluggish and slow-moving, it takes up a vantage point at dusk and then zaps nearly everything that comes within range."
Dr. Zahl views fastermoving frogs as more aggressive, but acknowledged that since frogs prefer to stay
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