I have Toads!!! Fence dilemma...

I'm so excited to discover I have toads in my yard, and they are huge.
I discovered this while looking for something in my dark kitchen one evening. Through the sliding glass doors in the dark something moved and I could see that just outside was an enormous toad (about 4-5 inches long) on my deck. Later when I was mowing the lawn, another toad (smaller, about 3inches) hopped away into the mulch. I got a picture of him (below).

Now my dilemma: I had been planning to build a fence around my SFG, but won't it also keep out the lovely toadies? And if so, would I no longer benefit from their snail-eating habits? Anyone else with toads and a fence?
The snails did a number on my peppers last year so I want to stay friends with the toads.

I'm no expert, but this looks like a frog to me. Here is a link. Bullfrogbabe would know the answer to your questions. Maybe you could PM her.

It does look a lot like a green frog, maybe you are right. We thought it couldn't be a frog because we don't have any water for it to live in. I'll have to take a walk down the neighboring street to see if anyone has put in a pond or something.

In this case, I can probably put up my fence!

What were you going to fence out?

Large frogs eat snails and slugs too!

I have chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, rabbits, possibly deer (though I haven't seen one on my street yet), and coyote. Also crows and all sorts of birds: jays, orioles, robins, cardinals.

I'm mainly looking to keep out the rabbits and chipmunks, and avoid attracting deer. I'm also afraid to attract vermin or become the scourge of the neighborhood by stimulating a boom in any local wildlife population. There is a skunk that visits frequently due to the grub problem I'm fixing soon (hello nematodes).

I'm guessing the frogs are only around temporarily because we've had a lot more rain than usual this spring,and/or because one of my neighbors has some standing water around.If they were toads I'd want to be more accommodating since they don't live in water (though they like it), [right?]

Nice bullfrog! You must have a large pond or wetland nearby full of waterlilies. Bullfrogs sometimes travel across land to switch ponds. They like large, permanent ponds of water, so her visit to your yard was enroute to somewhere with permanent water with lots of lily pads. Green frogs have dorsal lateral folds that run down their backs, your frog has a smaller one that just wraps around the ear drum, a signature trait of a bullfrog, compare photos below.

Bullfrogs have huge appetites for anything that moves and fit into their mouths -- bugs, baby birds, other frogs, you name it, if it fits they eat it!

It is a female, her ear is smaller than her eye (a males ear drum would be larger than his eye), she is olive green with spots (males are a brighter green without spots), and she has a creamy throat (a male would have a bright yellow throat). The bullfrog I am holding in my profile photo is a male bullfrog, see the yellow throat on him and the greener colouration without spots or mottling.

Here is a female bullfrog for comparsion.



Followed by a green frog below. See the ridge all the way down the green frogs back versus the shorter one on the bullfrog above just around the ear. The colouration is a touch different too.



If you here them calling in the wetland nearby the bullfrogs are asking for more rum in a deep loud drone while the green frogs are plucking their loose banjo strings. Enjoy!

Thank you!!! I have been talking to neighbors about it and they tell me that in fact there is a big pond at the nearby Rod & Gun club so this must be where they are going to or coming from. I guess I don't really have a fence dilemma after all, but I learned a lot about bullfrogs!