LauraSaenz

Our pest control guy did confirm they are swarming termites. They apparently get blown around a lot with the wind and got stirred up by the lawn guys. They are all gone now. He did tell us that they have a low survival rate and that is why there are so many in the swarms. That we don't have anything to worry about since they were all outside away from the house and structure. He did check my raised bed gardens since they were hanging out there, but said it was clear and the wood was in great shape. Phew.

Thank you for that link, I went out and scooped two up to show the pest control guy, but the more I look into it, I am almost certain they must be termites. I am just wondering what caused them to swarm my yard so quickly. We were out playing and then in 10 minutes they were all over. We did have lawn guys out doing our lawn and our neighbors (they showed up in our back when they mowed our neighbors side yard) I went out about 10 minutes ago an there were only a few (maybe 10) so strange since there were 100's (seriously) of them just an hour or two ago...maybe they are infesting my neighbors house and not mine (yet) we shall see! Thanks again for that link!

I was wondering if they were termites-it was my first thought! I saw one website that said that termites don't have segmented bodies-which these do. Someone else in the Species ID chat suggested "flying ant" also. I have pest control coming out for spiders Thursday, so I planned on showing them the pictures just to make sure! I will post here when I get a definitive ID.

Well I have about 1 hour of research, so I think we will trust your answer :) Thanks for all the help. I did send an email over yesterday asking toad trackers (through the Houston Zoo) if they would take a look at it too. We'll see if they have anything to add. Thanks again for the help Goody!

Much to my surprise this little guy was in the exact same place as yesterday. I recruited my (much less squeamish) daughter to hold him to try and take a picture of his underside. He didn't like being picked up at all so we just tried once then I tried putting him in a glass bowl, neither produced great results, but I am posting them just in case it helps any.

I tried really really hard goody to get a picture of his belly. Honestly I was scared to pick it up. Small steps for me..but it was a much lighter color than the rest of the body, I don't know if it was a lighter shade of brown or grayish/white, but definitely lighter.

Thanks for the info! I have never tried to ID a frog before and was a bit surprised to see the difference in colors among the same species, so I just took a guess as a red spotted toad. Only because it was the only dark colored frog on the page I saw-not very scientific. Lisa went with red spotted toad too. I am curious about the red spot under the eye is that a way to scare of would be predators? And is it okay to pick them up? My girls wanted to hold it, but I didn't want to hurt it or pee on them :)

Hi Lisa, was sent your way in the ID Help Chat. KarenL thought you may be able to help me (and my girls) figure out what kind of frog they found in the backyard. I'd appreciate any help.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/911...

Hey Goody, was suggested in the ID Help Chat that you may be able to help with a frog ID. Im new to the site and to animal watching/Identifying. If you don't mind taking a look, my girls and I would appreciate it! http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/911...
Thanks in advance!

I've decided it is hard to identify frogs. I think this may be a red-spotted toad (Bufo punctuates) the only picture that I found with description came from http://www.herpsoftexas.org/content/red-...

any one any better at this have a better ID/confirmation?