Do Toads Eat Ants

Toads are carnivores who eat insects as their primary and usually only source of food. It’s normal for a toad to switch things up by munching on a small animal or bird if it fits in their mouth, but they always eat protein.

While a hard chitinous outer shell might not sound good to you, toads enjoy them. Do toads eat ants?

Toads are carnivorous so they will eat ants, flies, beetles, wasps, bees, insects, worms and sometimes their own kind including smaller toads and frogs. Toads are well suited for snacking on ants that can bite or sting back because they strike so fast and begin digesting before the ant has a chance to grab ahold with their pincers.

Can Toads Eat Ants

Toads can eat most ants. As bugs, ants aren’t very big, but they are everywhere, making them a readily available food supply for tiny toads. Even larger toads could make a meal out of enough small ants.

Typically it’s a non-issue for them, as toads are well suited to snacking on prey that can bite or sting back. However, not all ants are so easy to eat.

In Australia, meat ants are fast becoming the top predator for poisonous and invasive cane toads.

According to Cane Toads In Oz,”…(meat) ants are very effective at capturing and killing the small toads as they emerge from the water. Even baby toads that “escape” from the ants often die within the next few hours, because they have been fatally wounded by the ants. In some of her trials, ants attacked and killed more than 90% of the toads near the water’s edge within a short period of time.”

These meat ants are killing thousands of dangerous cane toads annually, which is a significant benefit for most other animals and all the people who live where poison cane toads are a problem.

The trouble with eating other predatory species is that sometimes they can hunt you, too, as these toads found out.

However, most ants aren’t as capable as meat ants in the toad-killing department, which leaves them on the amphibian’s menu.

Do Toads Eat Fire Ants

Not many toads live in areas with abundant fire ants. Unfortunately, that means there’s no data available about whether these amphibians will eat them.

However, fire ants are named for the painful effect their sting has on their victims, making them a complicated prey item.

That said, toads will try to eat anything that looks like a bug and fits in their mouths.

Do Toads Eat Carpenter Ants

Toads will happily eat carpenter ants. This particular species of ants are a common food source for numerous creatures.

Among these are pileated woodpeckers, salamanders, grouse, skunks, lizards, and even bears.

A carpenter ant bite is unpleasant, but nothing compared to some of their more painful cousins like bullet ants, and they’re not as good at hunting as meat ants.

Since carpenter ants build their homes in deadwood like fallen trees, they are easier to reach for creatures with claws.

However, since the ants have to go out to hunt for resources for their colonies, a nice long trail of carpenter ants may be a problem for humans, but they’re a feast for toads.

Do Toads Eat Dead Ants

Wild toads do not eat dead ants. The savvy amphibians know instinctively that dead ants are host to numerous diseases. Even the ants themselves understand this.

Ant colonies not only remove their dead, but they place them together in a sort-of graveyard area to help keep the many problems that come with rotting corpses from infecting the colony.

Tame toads like pets will eat dead bugs and dead rodents. Nevertheless, all toads prefer live prey and seek it out whenever possible.

A pet toad may not have the same challenges or lifestyle as its companions who live outside, but they have the same biology and instincts.

Do Baby Toads Eat Ants

Baby toads are called tadpoles, the same as baby frogs. Once hatched, tadpoles eat algae and rotting plant matter. Toads are among the only species that’s diet changes from herbivore to carnivore based on their life cycle.

Juvenile frogs, which are younger, smaller, and occasionally mistaken for babies, will eat ants. Their size and less developed stomachs are well suited to little meals like ants.

Do Horned Toads Eat Fire Ants

Horned toads do eat fire ants. Unfortunately, the fire ants return the favor by raiding the nests of the horned toads and eating their eggs.

Since Texas horned toads are considered to be threatened, that’s a major issue.

Intriguingly, the so-called horned toad isn’t a toad at all. They are also known as horny toads and horned lizards because of the fringe of spikes around their head and their spiky bodies. Either way, horned toads eat ants.

Do American Toads Eat Ants

American toads eat ants like every other species of toad. This type’s diet consists of small insects like ants, mealworms, crickets, and even spiders.

Notably, ants are one of the more accessible prey items for toads, frogs, lizards, and other insectivores.

Their tiny size means the chitinous outside is thin, and they are generally much faster to digest than more significant bugs with thicker hides.

Helpful Tips To Know Do Toads Eat Ants

Toads eat ants because they make for an abundant food source, and they’re easy to digest. Though a few toads run across ants that are too difficult and dangerous to eat, the majority do well having these pests for supper.

Here are more helpful tips to know do toads eat ants.

• Usually, toads don’t get bitten by the ants they eat because they are so fast, they can snap them up and begin digesting before the ant has a chance to grab ahold with their pincers.

• Some toads are invasive species, but others help keep invasive species of insects under control. According to Wired, “The common Sulawesi toad turns out to be a prodigious eater of ants, even aggressive invading ones, says Thomas C. Wanger of the University of Göttingen in Germany and the University of Adelaide in Australia. On the island of Sulawesi, the Ingerophrynus celebensis toads readily feast on yellow crazy ants, which are colonizing the island as well as other tropical locations.”

• The formic acid in ant bites is what causes pain both for people and animals they bite.

Final Thoughts

Toads are perfectly capable of eating ants, and they are well suited to dining on them. Mostly, you’ll find smaller and younger toads gobbling up diminutive ants because it will fill them up.

Meanwhile, more sizeable members of the toad family sup on bigger prey, so they don’t need to eat as often. Adult toads often eat only a couple of times per week because their large, often chitinous, or bony meals take a while to digest.

For young toads, a line of ants is like a buffet table set out and waiting for a hungry stomach. Best of all, ants are less likely to be affected by or covered in pesticides, so they are frequently a safer choice.