Young wildlife lovers learned about a frog’s lifecycle and how to attract them to their gardens at a Manx Wildlife Trust workshop.

The event on Saturday was for young Wildlife Watch members, who also got crafty, making pebble frogs to entice the amphibians to pay a visit and homes for them to hibernate in.

It was led by biodiversity education officer Dawn Dickens, who had the following tips to attract frogs to your garden:

â?¢ A pond is ideal - avoid putting in koi carp and goldfish

â?¢ Leave an area of your garden with long grass. A log and leaf pile is ideal for hibernation.

â?¢Frogs need to keep moist to survive, so provide them with shaded areas to keep out of the midday sun. This can be as simple as an upturned flowerpot propped up with rocks.

â?¢ Avoid the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, and herbicides. Frogs can help keep down the pests such as slugs and snails, so you won’t have to use chemicals anyway.

Dawn said: ’At this time of year, people’s ponds have lots of frogspawn and though they might look full to over-flowing as a female frog can lay as many as 3,000 eggs, only about five will survive to become frogs.’

Frogs are protected by Manx law under the Wildlife Act and frogspawn should not be moved without a licence.

Volunteers from event sponsor Lloyds Bank International also helped out on the day.