Mass of tiny red eggs

18 years ago

I was just in my garden and noticed something on the rocks near my hens and chicks. There is a mass of tiny red spheres . The area covered is less than a square foot and the spheres are so tiny I'm not sure how to even measure them, but I had to get really down close to see what they are. There are hundreds of these things all massed together, spread over the rocks. I'm assuming they're eggs, but I'm wondering what laid them. If they're something destructive I would like to destroy them before they hatch, though I don't know much about eggs so it could be a toads eggs for all I know. Can anyone help? I will try to get a picture posted, but I'm not that high tech so it won't be until later this week.

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Comments (4)

goodhors
18 years ago
Toad eggs are soft, not warm enough outside yet for the toads to be moving around in our location. Their eggs are laid in the water, since frogs and toads come from tadpoles who only swim. Grow legs as they mature.

The only other thing I can think of might be snail eggs. My friend bought some very large snails, 2"-3" shells, for her pond, not a native species. Those snails laid eggs in clusters on the side of the rocks and pond lining. The clusters on hers were a very bright pink at first, then faded. With such large snails the eggs were huge, very noticable. She broke clusters off to prevent huge hatchings of snail in her pond. They laid the eggs all the time, until winter freeze killed the snails. Smaller native snail would have smaller egg clusters.

I don't know if snails egg would overwinter for spring hatching. Perhaps a search on snail eggs would turn up a photo to compare the two.
egyptianqueen
18 years ago
it could be those BEETLES that Look like Lady Bugs.. they don't mind the COLD or SNOW at all.. I've seen them in my house already (in Feb and March)...and they would lay hundred or thousands of eggs

I had the same thing in my yard last year near my ponds Waterfall ROCKS... they like the heat on the Rocks, and sure enough, once they got SLIGHTLY LARGER that's what they were.

And I wasn't about to get Bite by THAT MANY BEETLES... So I got 3 Praying Mantis Cocoons and once they hatched out (Hundreds of them) I had no more Beetle, SPIDERS, Aphids or Mite Problems at ALL THAT SUMMER and Its all natural..that way I didn't have to worry about my Grand daughters and Pesticides
chris_ont
18 years ago
Could be box elder beetle eggs but it's way too early for that, I think.
In any case, hundreds of these in such a small area and this early in the year can't be good. I'd err on the side of caution and remove them, or at least most of them.
Any luck with getting a photo of them?
Drakens
Original Author
17 years ago
Sorry I never got those pictures, anyway I tried removing them but they are actually down in the soil and everywhere so I'd have had to remove the whole rock garden to get rid of all of them. Instead I chose to just put down some diatemaceous earth over the area. They still dont' seem to have hatched so I still have no idea what they were.