Meet the Northern Leopard Frog

If you step outside near our living lab gardens on an early August morning, there’s a good chance you’ll startle a Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens)—or have one startle you first! These little green and brown leap-machines love the cool, damp microclimates created under dense leaf canopies and damp garden soil, making our veggie beds and flower borders prime hunting grounds.

While they need ponds and wetlands to breed earlier in the spring, adult leopard frogs spend much of the mid-to-late summer roaming surprisingly far into open fields, meadows, and cultivated gardens. That makes them a gardener’s best friend. They sit low in the shade, virtually invisible thanks to their spotted camouflage, waiting for beetles, slugs, flies, or grasshoppers to wander just an inch too close before snapping them up with a lightning-fast tongue.

Having a healthy population of them hanging around the living lab is a great sign. Amphibians have sensitive skin and react quickly to changes in environmental health, so seeing so many of them tells us we’re doing something right. Plus, having a natural, built-in pest control team working the day shift means fewer unwanted bugs chewing through our plants.