LONGWOOD, Fla. – More than 40 years ago, a neighborhood in Seminole County was reportedly swarmed in what was dubbed “The Great Longwood Toad Invasion.”
The incident happened in May 1982, lasting for a few days before the toads disappeared nearly altogether.
According to news reports from that year, the Winsor Manor neighborhood of Longwood saw hundreds of thousands of these toads hopping throughout the area.
Some residents claimed there were “billions.”
Sherry Fischer, who lived in Longwood during the invasion, told News 6 that she couldn’t even open a door without a pile of toads tumbling inside.
“We thought it was the plagues of Egypt or something…” she said. “You couldn’t open your front door without them all falling in, and you couldn’t walk to the street or anything without stepping on them. And then as you drove, it went, ‘Squish Squish.’”
At the time, residents weren’t able to identify what kind of toad they were, though experts suggested they were spadefoot toads — commonly known as “hurricane toads” — based on their coloring and breeding patterns.
One of those experts was natural sciences professor Dr. Peter Meylan, who explained that heavy showers earlier that year created the perfect breeding ground for them.
“There are some kinds of frogs that are called ‘explosive breeders,’” he said. “That is, you get the right rainstorm, and all the parents come out. They all breed at once.”
Heavy rain can fill in small ponds and dried-out depressions, prompting adult spadefoots to emerge from their underground hiding spots to kick off a day or two of breeding frenzy.
Females can lay thousands of eggs, and it takes only a few weeks for the tadpoles to develop into tiny frogs, so intense breeding seasons can cause throngs of these toads to swarm the surrounding area.
Winsor Manor has several bodies of water near it — such as the Twin, Rock, and Winsor lakes — so it would have been a prime spot for breeding back then.
While the Longwood was swarmed decades ago, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again.
According to the University of Florida’s Dr. Steve Johnson, this type of invasion can happen nearly anywhere in Florida — so long as the conditions are right.
“If you have a low area, and then if you have some decent uplands around there,” he said. “If it’s a neighborhood that’s got a small retention pond, and the houses are tightly packed together and it’s nothing but turf grass, it’s unlikely you’re going to have spadefoots living in there. They would have disappeared from the area.”
Johnson added that a pet dog could get sick if it gorged on the toads, but for the most part, they’re not much of a threat to people in Florida.
“None of our native toads pose any threat to people,” he explained. “The biggest threat here, sadly enough, would be a road becoming slick with all the dead carcasses and all the smashed toads. I can see that happening. I’ve never heard of that, but you know.”
The worst-case scenario is that the toads get into people’s homes, though Johnson said they would eventually just dry out, and residents might not even notice due to their small size.
And while Longwood residents in 1982 claimed to have seen billions of toads, Johnson said that was an unlikely figure, though swarms could include hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions — of the small creatures.
Johnson also wanted to remind people about the importance of lawn care for critters in nature, including frogs, birds, lizards and plenty of other wildlife that help take care of the environment.
He encourages Florida residents to read up on lawn care by using the following resources:
Interested in learning more strange stories from Central Florida? Read up on other local legends by clicking here.
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