I had an interesting issue this year. My in-ground liner pool started leaking and it appears it finally failed and needs re-lined. I don't have the money right now, at least until I can finally get a job after a long lay-off. I just left it leak until the shallow end was completely dry, and the 9' deep end has about 5' of (green) water.

Well, the frogs around us moved in, had a TON of fun... and we ended up with probably around 200 tadpoles. Before the tadpoles showed up I was getting mosquito bites all the time. Then I noticed that the tadpoles would come up to the surface to breathe, and I guess they were also eating mosquito larvae (since mosquitos breed in standing water). They sounded like it was raining when so many would come to the surface, gulp air, and dive. Ever since the tadpoles showed up I haven't seen any mosquitos - I assume the adults died and the larvae was eaten.

What's really cool though is they have started transforming into little 1/2 to 1" frogs. When I take my dogs out at night I sneak over to the pool slowly and watch the liner in the (dry) shallow end pop with frogs jumping in the water. It's neat to see over a hundred frogs that look like those old Mexican jumping beans hopping into the water at the same time.

I thought I was hosed this year because the family of bats we used to have living under our shed awning (size of a carport roof) moved out. They ate all the mosquitos the previous years, but they left and no more have found us and moved in yet. The awning/roof is shaped in a way that bats tend to like to live there. Maybe next year - if I can finally get a job with all these layoffs. Oh yeah - don't think my wife likes the frogs, or thinks they are cute.