Kill the Tree Frog! Savor the Lemon Trees!

I am super excited!  My Meyer lemon trees are doing fabulous!

On May 14, 2014 I told you about my attempt at growing three Meyer lemon trees.  You can read all about it here.

After three weeks of my little sweeties in the dirt, I am super stoked to share this little lovely with you:

They’re so happy!  Look at all those pretty leaves.  Once they get a little stronger, I’ll put them in terra-cotta pots.  The great thing is they don’t need a lot of room for roots. In fact, their roots freak out if they have too big of a space to spread out, so I’ll keep them in pots about 2 inches bigger than their root base.  I’ll keep you posted on their progress but so far, I’m thrilled.

I’m not too thrilled about this little guy.

 

Normally, I don’t mind frogs but this is a Cuban Tree Frog and he is an invasive species to Florida.  They actually kill cute little Florida tree frogs like this one:

“Creative Commons Green Frog” by inajeep is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Recommendation from the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation on how to deal with Cuban Tree Frogs:

“Cuban Tree Frogs should be captured and humanely euthanized by applying 20% benzocaine gel to their skin and then freezing the frog.”

Yeah, right.  Me.  Deliberately kill an animal that is not a cockroach, mosquito or palmetto bug (because those, of course, must die), especially when they look like this:

 

I guess if I come across one again, I’ll have to freeze it.  They are a nuisance to our local habitat and are killing the natives.

Anyone else ever had to euthanize wildlife?  Could you do it if you had to?

Related articles

• Invasive tree frogs cause trouble for Fla. wildlife
• Cuban Tree Frogs in Florida
• Meyer lemon tree: looks good, tastes great