Toads are terrestrial amphibians and opportunistic predators, meaning they consume almost any invertebrate prey small enough to fit into their mouths. When a toad detects movement, it attempts capture. This broad diet includes both shelled snails and shell-less slugs. The ability of toads to consume these garden pests makes them valuable allies for natural pest control.
The Toad’s Primary Diet
Toads are largely insectivorous, consuming a wide array of soft-bodied invertebrates found on the ground surface. Their meals include common garden inhabitants like ants, spiders, beetles, and caterpillars. They also eat crickets, earthworms, and grubs while foraging during their active, often nocturnal, hours.
A toad’s diet is influenced by local prey availability and its body size. Larger toads consume bigger prey, such as centipedes or moths, while smaller, newly metamorphosed toadlets focus on tiny insects like gnats and small ants. Toads are generally unselective feeders, relying on movement to trigger their feeding response, which ensures a consistent food supply throughout their active season.
Snails and Slugs on the Menu
Toads eat snails, but they consume slugs more frequently because slugs lack a hard shell, making them easier to swallow and digest. The slime produced by both snails and slugs presents no issue for the toad’s digestive system. The main obstacle when eating a snail is its hard, coiled shell.
When a toad captures a snail, it swallows the prey whole, shell and all, without crushing it. The toad’s powerful digestive juices break down the soft body, but the calcified shell passes through the digestive tract largely undigested. The shell is later excreted in the droppings. Snails are a regular and manageable component of the toad’s broad diet.
Hunting and Feeding Mechanics
The toad is an ambush predator that typically sits motionless, waiting for an invertebrate to move within striking distance. Once prey is detected, the toad uses a specialized feeding mechanism involving its tongue. The tongue is attached at the front of the mouth, allowing it to be flipped out rapidly toward the prey.
This highly adhesive, sticky tongue shoots out quickly, capturing the invertebrate and pulling it back into the mouth. For larger prey items, toads may use their forelimbs to help push the food further into the throat. The final step in swallowing involves a unique action: the toad retracts its large eyeballs down into the skull, which helps mechanically push the food bolus down the esophagus.
Toads as Natural Pest Control
Because toads are voracious, non-selective eaters, they serve as effective biological pest control agents in yards and gardens. A single adult toad can consume a large quantity of pests in a single night, including many common invertebrates that damage garden plants. Their nocturnal hunting habits make them particularly effective against pests like slugs and cutworms, which are most active after dark.
To encourage these helpful amphibians to reside in a garden, homeowners can provide simple habitat features. Toads require cool, damp shelter during the day, such as a small pile of rocks, a log, or a ceramic toad house. Providing a shallow dish of water or a small pond is also beneficial. Homeowners must also avoid chemical pesticides, which can be absorbed through the toad’s permeable skin and eliminate their food source.