Army Sent to Fight Millions of Invading Toxic Toads

Reporter writes "The Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against the invasion of toxic toads! Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians. From the article: "The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest: Beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts. But the toads now number in the millions and are spreading westward through the Northern Territory, upsetting the country's ecosystem in their wake. Cane toads have poisonous sacs on the back of their heads full of a venom so powerful it can kill crocodiles, snakes or other predators in minutes." More information about cane toads at Wikipedia."

Very Little Information

[eldavojohn]

Well, the article doesn't say much about what the army is supposed to do except kill them. I highly doubt that's the strategy and, after being raised on farms in my youth, it's easier to use a trap or target the nests than to get down on your hands and knees and kill each and every one of them. In fact, even if you killed all the visible ones, how do you kill/remove all the tadpoles and eggs from the ponds and water in Australia? It would be obviously stupid to try to introduce another foreign species that might rampage about the land. Especially one that would be immune to the toad's toxin.

It's odd that they deploy the military considering that current government research [austmus.gov.au] has been directed towards isolating a sex pheremone to disrupt the breeding cycle. The government fact sheet [deh.gov.au] suggests removing the jelly strings of eggs from water & humane execution of adult cane toads. There are guides on Cane Toad control [wetlandcare.com.au] that talk about using traps but what do you do with the toads after you trap them. Will the Australian military be trudging through wetlands and collecting toad eggs while smashing the adults with specialized mallets? No one is alluding to the method of the military.

Perhaps this is some left over funding that was appropriated to the military and now they feel like they have to spend it? Either way, I don't live in North Eastern Australia so I don't know what level of effect these toads are truly having.

Here's a humorous Google Video [google.com] on the cane toad. It's more just a dabble in CGI by film makers but I thought it worth mentioning given the topic.

Re:oblig. simpsons

[Anonymous Coward]

Chazzwozzer.

Go to your local plant nursery, look around

[ianscot]

People never seem to learn this lesson. It doesn't matter that kudzu and dandelions and purple loosestrife and house sparrows and starlings and gypsy moths and buckthorn and... you get the picture: it doesn't matter that any given introduced species goes nuts and that other introductions meant to curb earlier mistakes blow up. People don't see how it could happen the next time. They just don't care that much.

Head on down to your local plant nursery and consider what share of the plants there are native to your area. The percentage will be pitifully small unless you're in Hawaii or something. Hawaii takes plant imports very seriously. In my area, even when there's a perfectly good native species like American bittersweet vine, the nursery will decide to carry a eurasian species that has some slightly different quality. Bam: eurasian bittersweet swallows whole forests in the south. The native version didn't do that. Gee, I guess the difference was a little bit bigger than we thought.

People could have planted native chestnut trees. They were the dominant species of non-mast food tree in eastern U.S. forests, and a huge wildlife habitat -- until they were wiped out by the chestnut blight brought over on shrubby eurasian chestnuts by plant nurseries. Didn't learn from that one either.

If anything, where there are legal restrictions about plants, they're usually an encouragement not to plant natives. Introduced species are so much more civilized, or something.

Re:Very Little Information

[WalksOnDirt]

Many frogs are good parents (for amphibians anyhow). Maybe some toads are too.

Some frogs also look after their eggs--and in some cases even the tadpoles--for some time after laying.

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog [wikipedia.org])

Re:Why doesn't poison kill the host?

[LouisZepher]

On one hand, imunity. On the other, such animals evolved a really nifty trick called not biting or licking themselves.

Wonderful Cane Toads movie

[Mr.Ziggy]

The best look at this problem is an old documentary called Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.

I own the DVD because it is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Truly memorable, educational, and completely bizarre. Before we had documentary parodies like Best of Show, there were real documentaries that were even better.

Must see:
Little girl playing with toads like Barbie dolls
Man killing cane toads. Multiply by the thousands now + camo for army effect.

Reviews and more info:
http://www.wowozanga.com/2006/06/19/army-called-in -to-fight-toxic-toad-invasion-in-australia.htm [wowozanga.com]
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/canetoads/ [badmovies.org]

Re:Go to your local plant nursery, look around

[Hoi Polloi]

Japanese Knotweed is another gem brought over that overruns disturbed areas (trails, roadsides, etc). I've worked with groups that try to control invasive species and it is a Sisyphisian task. You have to be 100% committed to it over many years. You have to tear their roots out or poison them season after season and get every little cluster of them.

Here is one especially lovely plant that was brought over. The Giant Hogweed [wikipedia.org] (sounds just lovely, doesn't it?). Get the sap in your eyes and it can blind you. Get it on your skin and you could be permanently scarred. Some were found growing in Western Massachusetts a few years back.

Sometimes I think it would make more sense to genetically splice beneficial plants with invasives. Knotweed that grew oranges or Loosestrife that grew strawberries wouldn't be bad at all.

Some Information

[mi]

what the army is supposed to do except kill them.

The humane way to kill them, advocated by the Northern Territory government (which tried to encourage citizens to setup subsidized traps on their land), is to put the captured toads in plastic bags and into freezers. The cold-blooded creatures simply fall asleep as they get colder...

The sad things are:

1. they never ate the cane beattle, they were brought in to fight;
2. they are harmless by themselves — only killing the predators, who try to eat them.

Australia's predators (quolls mostly) are lone hunters, so others don't have the chance to learn from a fellow hunter's fate. Park rangers have evacuated some of them off to islands to preserve the already withering species...

Interestingly, the feral cats — another menace to Australia's native wildlife — seem smart enough not to get killed by the poisonous quarry...

It seems like some of Australia's birds of prey — probably, having watched others die — have learned to flip the toads over and eat out the belly, which is not protected by poison. It may not be enough to stop the invasion, though...

torrent

[crabpeople]

http://www.mininova.org/tor/49932 [mininova.org]

I saw it a few months ago. very funny.

Re:Simple Solution

[dieScheisse]

info link [floridagardener.com]

I also live in Florida, Tampa to be specific. I moved into a house north of the city and about 2 years in starting noticing these toads in the back yard. At first I didn't think much of them...they were small and few in numbers. Then they started getting bigger and I do mean big. But still, I didn't think much of them. I never left any sort of food outside for them so I figured they ate bugs and whatever else they could find.

Then one day after letting my dogs outside I noticed one was salivating profusely, so much that it looked like someone had turned on a faucet in her mouth. She is one to chase everything and anything...squirrels, anoles, whatever. I wiped her up and she seemed fine so I didn't worry much about it. A month or so later we went out of town. When we got back, the woman who petsat for us said that the same thing had happened to her. I thought weird, but again didn't think much of it because nothing happened again.

During a later visit to the vet, I mentioned to them about these toads in the yard. The tech went into the back and came back with one of these toads in a formaldehyde jar. She then informed me exactly what they were and how dangerous they are to pets. I then put 2 and 2 together and realized how lucky my dog was (she weighs only 30 lbs).

Since that time, anytime I see one I immediately kill it. Fuck being humane. They need to be eradicated. I get out the shovel and start smacking the crap out of them. Sometimes it takes a good 4 or 5 hits before they finally succumb.

Good riddance.

My experiences

[Anonymous Coward]

I am an Australian.

When I was a lad living in Townsville (North Queensland) , a popular sport amongst kids was to go Toad hunting, a competitive activity involving torch and a pitchfork. You would fill a sack in a few hours. (Can't remember what we did with the bodies). That was 35 years ago. The problem is much worse now.

With maturity and reflection I regretted that activity - too inhumane. Now I'm not so sure.

Here are some facts, some well known, some not:

- imported from Hawaii in 1935, quickly adapted/evolved.
- size: up to 24cm , weight 1.4 kg
- extreme adaptability, desert to mangrove
- lay up to 35,000 eggs at a time
- tadpole have 5 rows of teeth used to rasp (like a shark)
- eat anything they can swallow, including small mammals
- extremely poisonous - dogs that bite them often die
- sometimes boiled to extract the poison, which is also a hallucinogenic drug.
(Users also often die)

Ref: http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm [austmus.gov.au]