My 6 year old son, Sebastian, ran screaming into the house! "My eyes! My eyes!" He sobbed. My wife quickly grabbed his arm and led him into the bathroom and began flushing his eyes out with water. Once the pain and irritation had subsided from his eyes and he had quit crying, we asked him what had happened.
After a couple of hours, he nervously admitted that he had been handling a frog. So, we began a search of our backyard for the frog that he had been holding. Once we had located it (or one similar to it) it was identified as a Gray Tree Frog. They are amazingly easy to locate and catch in our backyard. Sebastian had evidently rubbed or touched his eyes after handling the frog- and the frog's skin secretions had caused the burning sensation and irritation of Sebastian's eyes.
I had never heard or read about any native North American frog causing anyone a problem due to handling. (Old wives tales about warts not-with-standing). So, I retrieved one of my amphibian guidebooks down from the shelf and began investigating the Gray Tree Frog. In big bold letters, the author had noted that skin secretions from the Gray Tree Frog can cause severe eye irritation.
The Gray Tree Frog can be either of the two colors shown in the accompanying photographs- either light or dark gray. Note the "X" pattern on the back of the dark gray tree frog- this marking provides an easy way to identify it.
Beware the Gray Tree Frog. You have been warned. (You CAN kiss them. Just be sure not to touch your eyes.) :)
4 comments:
the tree frog I see all the time here is the Green tree Frogs living near my porch
but the Gray is out here too at times
don't they have that yellow to the thigh inside....
Aptly named critter the "gray tree frog". Some scientist had the creative juices flowin'. When are you gonna feature the "big brown bat"? Cool site Mr. Crabtree! Glad to have had a small part in ruining you for life.
Thank you for the info, we have two sons 2 and 4 years old. They found and played with a frog this evening for few minutes before we were able to get them to leave it alone. We were just getting them cleaned up when our 2 year old started screaming about his eyes and of course rubbing them even more. While flushing his eyes, wondering what was going on our 4 years old started screaming as well. We figured out it was from the frogs since they both started screaming and they both handled the frogs. They are both better now but we were very concerned.
This article was very helpful for me and my 10 year old! He had found this frog,and brought it to me to show me. About 30 minutes later, my son had started complaining of his right nostril burning, and then soon after that he started complaining about his eyes hurting. At first I did not know what to do, or what was wrong, but finally remembered he had handled a frog.
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