Wild frogs can be cool to find and peaceful to listen to, but they can also cause trouble for your property.
If you’re struggling with frogs pooping on your porch, the best thing you can do is avoid attracting insects by keeping your house lights to a minimum, trimming up the nearby greenery, and removing open water sources.
You can also install a barrier or use vinegar to prevent frogs from gaining access to your porch.
In this article, we’ll examine the reasons why frogs poop on your porch and what you can do to prevent this from happening.
Why do frogs poop on porches?
There are a few different reasons why frogs will poop on porches, but it mostly boils down to the fact that frogs are attracted to insects.
Frogs will head to your porch because the environment is inviting to them, most likely because there are plenty of tasty bugs around.
Porch lights
Porch lights are notorious for attracting insects.
The same can be said for any outdoor lighting. If you have issues with frog pooping on your porch, take some time to look around at all the available lights in the evenings.
Do you have a porch light that you regularly use at night? Do the internal house lights shine out onto your porch? Do you have yard lighting?
These light sources attract bugs, which will draw frogs onto your property and to your porch.
Open water nearby
Open water sources are havens for both bugs and frogs. If you have a pond in your yard or neighborhood, this is likely where the frogs are coming from.
Frogs love the moisture of the open water, and it makes an excellent place for mating and egg laying. On top of this, plenty of insects makes their homes near the water.
If there are multiple sources of open water nearby, there are likely more frogs in your area. With so many frogs around, there’s a higher chance that they’ll find their way to your porch.
Lots of greenery
If you have a lot of greenery in your yard and near your porch, this could also attract bugs and frogs.
Insects will thrive in the greenery and may even make a home or lay eggs there. Frogs will use the greenery to hide and feel safer as they travel toward your porch.
Porches surrounded by shrubs and other bushy plants are more attractive to frogs.
5 Ways to keep frogs from pooping on your porch
Now that you know some of the main reasons why frogs are present in your yard and attracted to your porch, what can you do about it?
Turn off your porch lights.
The simplest solution is to turn off your porch lights and limit other outdoor lighting at night.
Doing this will significantly reduce the number of insects in the vicinity. When the insect population drops, your porch will not be as enticing to the neighborhood frogs.
Pay attention to your internal house lights as well. If your kitchen light is always beaming out onto your porch, see about installing light-blocking curtains to prevent the porch from being illuminated.
If you have a particularly large yard, you might want to consider placing a small light at the furthest corner of your property to draw the insects and frogs away from your house.
Don’t use this method over a long period of time, though, as you’ll likely continue to attract frogs to that corner of your property.
Remove open water in your yard.
If you have a pond in your yard, consider whether you want to continue maintaining it.
A pond will almost always attract more insects and frogs to your yard, so you may want to remove the pond if the frogs are giving you real trouble.
You can also drain the pond for a few weeks or a season to see if that deters the frogs. This is a less permanent removal that will allow you to see if removing the open water source will solve your frog problem.
Some yards have low elevation. If you tend to have standing water in your yard after a heavy rain, you may want to adjust the elevation and flow of water on your property.
Standing water is attractive to frogs, but it can also damage your home.
Trim the greenery
Take your porch from jungle status to clean cut.
Trim any large and unruly shrubs and consider removing any unneeded greenery. With fewer plants around, there will be fewer habitable spaces for the insects and frogs of the area.
The frogs will be more exposed in their journey to your porch, which will make it riskier. This will disincentivize them from heading toward your porch.
Barricade your porch
You can also barricade your porch to prevent frogs from gaining access.
If you decide to do this, you’ll want to examine the perimeter of your porch and find the areas where the frogs seem to be pooping the most.
How are they gaining access, and where are they hanging out? Then, you’ll want to select a material that will work with your porch style.
You can try chicken wire, some sort of plastic wall or sheeting, or anything that will work to block off the entry points to your porch.
Remember to warn your family members if you decide to do this. You wouldn’t want anyone to trip over the barricade.
Once your barricade is in place, keep a watchful eye on it at night to see if it is working or not. You may need to adjust the positioning or change the material if the frogs keep sneaking in.
Use vinegar
Many people have successfully used vinegar to deter both frogs and insects.
You can use a spray bottle or cloth to spread vinegar on or around your porch. When a frog steps onto the vinegar, it creates a burning sensation on its skin, which they do not like.
The vinegar can deter frogs from going near your porch since they detest the sensation of the vinegar.
It is not toxic to the frogs, just unpleasant. Concentrate on applying the vinegar in areas where the frogs tend to gain access to your porch.
Spreading vinegar in this way can also deter bugs, which is another plus.
Is it safe to use repellent sprays?
You may have seen frog or snake repellent sprays advertised online, but these sprays are usually highly toxic and unsafe to use.
They will pollute your yard, affecting the nearby plants, soil, and air. On top of this, the contamination will last for an undetermined amount of time.
Repellent sprays are hazardous for households with children or pets. If you have children or animals who play in your yard, you’ll want to avoid using repellent sprays.
The 5 steps above are all safe, non-toxic alternatives.
Moreover, a lot of repellent sprays will actually poison or kill the frogs, which is cruel and bad for the environment.
Frogs are vital to the ecosystems surrounding us, and they face increasing threats from humans every year.
You would be doing your yard and neighborhood a great disservice by harming the frogs with noxious repellents.
It is best to stay away from repellent sprays and use safe alternatives instead. Apart from vinegar, you can also try spraying salt water or spreading coffee grounds in the areas you want to deter frogs.
Is it possible to remove the frogs entirely?
In some circumstances, you can safely remove the frogs from your property by catching and releasing them elsewhere. This is mostly doable in situations when you’re only handling a small number of frogs.
Think about it this way: if you catch and release 5 frogs a night for a week, you’re still dealing with 35 frogs. This may be a viable solution if you think you’re dealing with a local population of fewer than 100 frogs.
However, if there is a significant number of frogs in the area, this process will be less manageable because you’ll never be able to remove them all. More and more will keep coming.
In an area densely populated with frogs, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to remove all frogs from your property.
When you release the frogs, be sure to do it in an area with accessible water and surrounding greenery. You’ll want to go far enough away that the frogs won’t head straight back to your porch.
Never touch the frogs with your bare hands, as this could get you sick or harm the frogs.
In a desperate situation, you can contact a pest control service as a last resort. Keep in mind that these services often use toxic chemicals as a part of their process.
Try the 5 steps above before taking more drastic measures. With some persistence, you can have a clean porch yet again.