How to warn the wildlife the lawn is being cut?

Soot2006

Feeling devastated ... Mowed our suburban garden lawn and while checking all my little plants afterwards found a huge frog without legs - ripped out by mower I had to euthanise it as was still trying to get away. Feel like !!!!!!!!! We have no pond and I've never seen a frog before, is there any way of warning them the mower is coming? Middle of the day sunny, it must have been hiding in a border or denser patch

davemorton

Same happened to me last week, went over the poor thing with the mower, and saw it straight away so had to put it out of its misery (wasn't an easy task ).
With hindsight I wondered wether I should have just left it, as now I am doubting myself to its injurys.

Soot2006

I thought mid afternoon would be the safest time - avoid mornings and evenings and lots of things seem to be using the garden at the moment. Maybe just one of those things Still sad though. For future reference, garden secateurs make an instant frog euthanising device

mrbadexample

Mow slower! Give them a chance to move away - that's really all there is to it. Plus if you keep the grass short they'll avoid it as there's nowhere to hide.

blossomhill_2

Go round the longest grass dragging a bamboo cane beforehand - we had to start doing this after a sad event with a toad and haven't had a repeat incident

Ectophile

One thing that will help is to mow so that small animals have an escape route. They will usually try to get out of the way of a mower, but won't want to cross short mowed grass.

So if there's cover at one edge of the lawn, start at the opposite edge, so you're driving them towards the cover.

Soot2006

Thanks, lots of good tips ... Probably the first and last frog ever to visit our garden. Don't blame them
My last post on this board was about a dead slow worm - I am obviously only good at killing things

demystified

Don't mean to be critical but you need to cut your grass more often... leaving it until it looks like a hay meadow really isn't helping...

and trust me you're not the first person to have done something like this....

faerie~spangles

demystified wrote: »

Don't mean to be critical but you need to cut your grass more often... leaving it until it looks like a hay meadow really isn't helping...

Hard to do when it is almost always piddling with rain.

Poor frog.

Thanks for the warning tho'. All our wee tadpoles have left the water feature and I hadn't even considered that I could run the mower over a frog:o

hareng

If you had a dog, could have let that out. Ever seen one lick a frog or play with an hedgehog:rotfl:they never learn.