Tree Frogs – UGH!!!

My brother called me yesterday and told me he wanted me to hear something.  He was down in his wooded area by his pool.  He held the phone for me to hear.  He came back on and asked if I heard the noise.  It was frogs.  He was excited because the spring noises, insects, and varmints are coming out.  Any one that follows me on facebook knows how I LOVE these things!  NOT! I have mentioned a few in my prior blogs as well…camel crickets, bats, etc. Well, I do love some summer things, but there are so many that seem to single me out and harass me.  A friend sent me a message today about another creature I do not care for and I have a blog all ready for that one!  You will have to stay tuned.

The tree frog saga began with this……Picture a nice quiet night,  the smell of campfire in the air, the stars were nice and bright, the moon overhead was beautiful, people’s voices in hushed tones in the distance and now you are peacefully sleeping in your tent with your small children.  Nice thought isn’t it?

Suddenly out of nowhere is a blood curdling  scream sounding like a female in distress.  Everyone bolts straight up!  The kids are quietly sitting wide eyed and waiting for us to instruct them.  I think fear had them paralyzed. Wes is jumping around doing his panic dance waving his flashlight and barking off questions to me.  What was that?  Where is that?  After a period of mass hysteria, I calm everyone down and we sit and wait.  We are about to just go back to sleep.  The scream again!  It sounds like it is coming from overhead.

Wes is doing his dance and investigating the tent, wildly waving the flashlight. Really, I should video him sometime it is the funniest thing to see!  You that know him and how tall he is…. big hands, big feet…can probably picture it better.  But, he sort of has his legs spread and he is lifting each leg individually like he is rapidly stomping grapes and his hands are flying around like Herman Munster.  The screaming is more frequent now and obviously it is on our tent!  Somewhere!  Hopefully not in it! We all are grabbing our shoes and flashlights in case it is inside and we do not want it on us!  Whatever it is! The children are hovering closer to me and Wes is in the middle of the tent doing his dance.

The night before we heard something like an owl hooting weirdly and something screaming.  Other campers told us it was probably an owl attacking a rabbit, so we had no idea what this was but we really did not want any part of it.  Wes finally found the culprit.  He/She/It was between the screen roof and the cover of the tent and it was a frog of sorts.  Wes went and removed it.  I have to be truthful, he was a bit fearful of it. (Maybe more than he wanted us to know, haha!) He cannot keep anything from us, his dances give it away! This was not just a regular toad or frog that we had known of. We had never heard of or seen anything like it. It was so very small!  He used something to remove it and was hoping it would not jump on him.  Of course we were all scared, but we were having great fun laughing at Wes and his “dance” that he does when he is excited or scared.

Later, after research, we found it was particular kind of tree frog.  Man!  Can they scream!  Loud!  It is rather nice to go to bed with the summer sounds of insects and animals, but not sounds like a women in a murder mystery! That could give someone a heart attack by waking up to that!

Just look at it!  Of course the ones we have found are not this bright green and bright orange, but they have the very same features.  So little!  How in the world can it have a scream that loud!  Why do things with buggy ugly eyes seem to find me!  Look at those feet and the clubbing on his toes!  I would never want anything like that to get on me! I cannot stand them, forgive me, but I cannot. I know, why do I continue to love camping and outdoor stuff and am so bothered by the “critters”? I was in their territory I know that.  They have a right to be there.  I just think they should find their own tents!

Tomorrow will be part two of tree frogs and a new incident!