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Growing Home - Woodhouse's Toad

That warty toad hopping through your garden is likely a Woodhouse’s toad – a common, helpful resident in western Colorado. It grows up to 5 inches long, has a white strip down its warty back and is nocturnal, feeding on pests after dark. Thet eat grasshoppers, beetles, moths, even scorpions. By day it burrows into cool soil, and as nights get colder it digs down to hibernate. Don’t fret about its bumps on the skin – they won’t give you warts; some of those bumps are special glands that can ooze a very bitter toxin that discourages predators.