I wanted to share an incident that happened in my home last week involving an animal, which is not native to Florida. After my husband came home from work, I was sitting in my bedroom talking to him. I finished the conversation and stood up to leave. All of a sudden, I happened to see something moving on the floor near the foot of our bed, it was gray and looked like a mouse at first. It was approximately five inches long.

Me: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God… screaming at the top of my lungs..not really believing what I was seeing. (At this point, the animal starts hopping and hops towards my clothing hamper, hiding behind it.)

Husband: What, what?

Me: (still screaming) I can’t believe it, it is a frog, a bug, I don’t really know…LOOK… as I pointed to the nearby clothing hamper.

Husband: What, where, I do not see anything.

Oldest son: (who came running into the bedroom holding a plastic disposable cup, he usually does this whenever I see a Lizard inside my home for the purpose of catching it and removing it from my home). What is it, Mom?

Me: Oh, my God (nearly hyperventilating), Oh, my God, THERE (pointing behind the hamper) it is a bug, frog, really do not know, please catch it…

Oldest Son: Sure (moves the hamper and catches the frog in the cup), wow, this frog is a big one.

Husband: Oh my God, it really is a frog. Man, it is really big and I have never seen one of those in this state at all. I wonder how it got into the house? ( he is a Florida native).

Me: (Starting to calm down and speaking to my oldest son) Thanks so much, you saved the day. Please take it outside NOW.

Youngest son: (who now walks into the same bedroom) Mom, it is just a harmless frog, you really did not have to scream so much.

Me: There is no way I will be convinced that the frog is harmless. Regardless of whether he is harmless, I do not want it in my home.

Later that night:

Husband: Wow, you made my day today.

Me: How?

Husband: Well, my day had been a boring one until you started screaming.

Me: (Smiling) Well, the frog scared me to death.

We then had company over for the Fourth of July and put the incident aside. However, today I finally did some Internet research to get some more information about the frog. I found a great web page on the University of Florida website, which addresses this type of frog and has some good pictures. I also looked at other websites.

http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/cuban_treefrog_inFL.shtml

http://solutionsforyourlife.ufl.edu/hot_topics/environment/cuban_treefrogs.shtml

This is the scoop. What I saw is called a, “Cuban Tree Frog”. It eats Florida native tree frogs, as well as lizards and many invertebrates. They seem to have migrated to Florida by boat. They may cause electrical short circuits and clog drains. Some electricity companies have paid up to $10,000 to repair damage caused by these frogs.

These frogs also secrete an irritating substance and therefore should not be handled with bare hands. They can grow more that six inches. Florida residents who see one of these, should report the incident to the University of Florida, where researchers are trying map the migration of these frogs.

Nevertheless, the most shocking advice on the University of Florida website is that if Florida homeowners see one of these, they should euthanize them. The page explains how to humanely do this. However, this is something that I could never do.

Almost forgot, the scariest fact about the frogs is that their favorite hangout in Florida homes is inside toilets. Well, from now on, I am really going to inspect toilets carefully before sitting down on one. Hope that this story has been informative for my other Florida peeps. I have been living in this state since 1975 and I have never heard of this type of incident before, nor did I know what a Cuban tree frog was until now.

I really wish I had taken a picture of this frog, but I was really too upset to think of doing this. In any case, here is a picture of what the frog looked like.