Wanted CB Grey Tree frogs (Maybe...)

[teslas intern]

Greetings all,
My name is Scott, this is my first post (I hope I'm doing it correctly) so hi! Long story short I'm looking for some Grey tree frogs, maybe 6 or so. I'd strongly prefer captive bred, or pre-owned, as opposed to wild caught (unless I catch them myself locally, which so far is not working).

Now the long story... So I'm not sure grey tree frogs are what I actually want. I do not currently own any frogs, I had a grey tree frog which was locally collected when I was a teenager, and I loved the thing. Her name was Norma, and I had her for two years before she died (her age was unknown). I decided recently to get back into the hobby as I got into a related hobby (tarantula keeping) which got me into another related hobby (breeding cockroaches, dubia and lateralis). Needless to say, I'm apparently very good at the roach thing (6 baby tarantulas don't eat much) and before it gets out of control, I'd like a few more pets to help cull the thousands of baby roaches. I remember my Norma being a voracious eater, and given 100 adult dubia, and 75 adult lateralis, and countless isopods I figure about 5 or 6 frogs should keep my numbers stable. Does that sound right? Anyway this probably should be put in two separate posts, but I'm new to forums in general and it took me an hour and a half to get this far... At any rate if you guys think grey's won't really help with my problem a little push in the right direction would be helpful. I've also considered white's tree frogs, I'm not so interested in land frogs or toads at this time... Thanks for your patience guys!

[ColleenT]

Grays are wonderful frogs and great eaters, just difficult to find. there are some websites that sell them, but it is illegal to buy/sell/trade them in PA. just so you are aware. i'm not telling you not to do it, but be careful if you do.

[teslas intern]

Thanks colleen, I'll keep that in mind. It does seem a bit silly, to have a law like that, but perhaps they are concerned about communicable diseases? Or maybe just they don't want anyone doing field collecting and selling native wildlife? At any rate if I do go for the grey's I'll make every effort to do it responsibly towards the environment, which is why I am here, and didn't just buy them online... I just wish it was the right time of year to find them, we have a ton of them all over, but since it is not breeding season my "traps" are not working... Thanks for the quick reply!

[UncleChester]

If it's legal to collect them in PA, drive around on warm and rainy spring nights with your windows cracked listening for their call to find breeding grounds. Return in the day and gather a few eggs or tadpoles a few days later. Collecting little ones will have less impact than pulling breeding adults out of the population, something like 1-2% of eggs even make it to the land stage, a few eggs or tadpoles won't be missed nearly as much.

Most provinces and state laws I've looked at end up with 3 or 4 groupings for wildlife, each with it's own set of what you're allowed to do with them (no restrictions, limits of possession with fishing liscence, ok to own but not to buy/sell/import, strict hands off, etc.). A species ends up in whatever category people thought made sense at the time to be re-evaluated usually... never. Or when someone decides a pet frog could destroy civilization. So it doesn't always have to make sense. Strong protection laws for wild frogs can be a good thing, it discourages people from collecting hordes of the little ones to be sold as live fishing bait for example.

You could also try selling off some of your roaches, they're pretty desirable as feeders. Or so I hear, they're not legal to keep up here in Canada.

[teslas intern]

We definitely have breeding grounds on our property, if my roach problem wasn't growing so fast, I would definitely do that... I checked out our fish a boat commission website and it says there is a collection limit of one per day, but I think all those rules go out the window when it is on your property, I'll have to verify... I guess I was sort of hoping somebody had a few on here that they wouldn't mind letting go to a new home. I'll look into selling roaches, I know there are a lot of people who do that online but perhaps there is a local market. That way I can frog collect at my leisure, and I can set up a good vivarium during the winter months to come. Thanks Brian!