Environment

Eye on Nature: Frozen frogs and giant house spiders

Ethna Viney responds to your queries, observations and photographs

This frozen frog was found on Mount Eagle on the Dingle Peninsula

Sat Apr 7 2018 - 06:00

I saw a frog latched around the goldfish in our pond. The goldfish appeared dead, but we unlatched them with difficulty and the goldfish swam away.

Rachel Joynt, Borris, Co Carlow

The ever promiscuous male frog.

I found this frog in Connemara. Is it suffering from red leg and is it common among frogs?

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Niall O’Donoghue, Galway

Our common frogs have bewildering variations in colour. Yours has a natural combination of red and yellow with some black spots, which is not common.

When walking up Mount Eagle on the Dingle Peninsula on March 18th, we found this frozen frog. It has been suggested that when it thaws it may still live. Is this possible?

Clair Shannon, Ventry, Co Kerry

No, our frog, Rana temporania, will not survive freezing. There are some frogs in North America, such as the wood frog, Rana sylvatica, that can survive.

We converted our attic last summer and this type of spider keeps appearing in one of the rooms. We must have upset their habitat.

Sonya Burgess, Rathvilly, Co Carlow

It is the giant house spider, Tegenaria gigantea. See https://iti.ms/2ussyun for some helpful tips.

This is a photo of a brambling newly arrived on my bird feeder.

Oran O’Sullivan, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow

Little moths that have come to live with us have done quite an amount of damage to clothes in cupboards and the hot press. What can I do about them?

Claire Larkin, Ennis, Co Clare

This website should help you: https://iti.ms/2GAPsVy

This woodpigeon was aloft in The Secret Garden in Rosslare Harbour.

Larry Dunne, Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford

Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie. Include a postal address.

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