The Annual Spring Peeper War

I live across the street from a slight swamp.  In the late Winter, the Spring Peepers call constantly.  They started yesterday.  That's OK, because there are thousands of them and the sound is a sort of "white noise" a 100 yards away and on the far side of the house from my bedroom.

What is NOT OK is the dozen or so Spring Peepers that are attracted to the small pond outside my bedroom window.  They are individual callers and  drive me crazy, like the infamous Chinese Water Droplet Torture.  It's an individual thing; so people think the chirps soothing like rain on the roof, others go nuts.

I go nuts.  I can't sleep when it happens and it lasts about 2 weeks.  Before I retired, I was reduced to fitful sleeping in the guest bedroom (opposite side of the house) keeping several doors closed between the pond and me.  I even put acoustical ceiling tile in my bedroom window, but the shrill chirps came  right through the walls.

I confess it sometimes became so bad that I would sneak out at 2 a.m. and stalk the peepers, stomping on them.  I felt like an idiot standing outside in the middle of the night desperately hoping to stomp on a few poor little innocent frogs.

THEN, I got the bright idea of simply closing down their little dating bar.  No open water, no frogs.  No frogs, no noise.  No noise, good sleeping...

TA DA!!!

The side view:

I feel sorry for the little guys (and gals) I really do.  At least they are just the losers in the choice of water to "date" in, and there is an endless supply of frogs with better choices in locale (he swamp from whence they came across the street).

It started this season when I went to get my morning newspaper and heard all the swamp peepers calling.  I knew what was coming next.  So I looked around for a cover for the pond.  Last year, I used a big piece of plywood.  This year I found something easier.

I set my post hole digger across the pond.  The handles open up to make a stable support for a bucket.  The bucket provided height to make the rain drain away.  Various random objects sealed the edges so that the peepers couldn't crawl in underneath.  I trust that Skeeter and LC won't object to my temporary use of the grave markers.  LC always did enjoy annoying the frogs...

My friends sometimes laugh at my makeshift arrangements.  I prefer to think of it as "resourceful use of available objects".    LOL! 

Anyway, so far, not Spring Peepers ruining my sleep...