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Toxic Toads Taking Over Australia

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bad-sci-fi-movie-ideas dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo News is reporting that toxic toads imported from Hawaii to help control the beetle population that was ravaging Australia's sugar cane crops have instead become pests themselves. From the article: 'The toads can grow as large as dinner plates and weigh up to 4.5 pounds. Their heads and backsides are studded with rows of warts that secrete a milky white toxin called bufotoxin. Because Australia has no native toads, many native predators such as snakes, lizards and mammals are very sensitive to the toxin. So when the toads spread, they immediately kill off many of the region's top predators.'"

6 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Terrible Summary by Jozer99 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I could be wrong, and I'm too lazy to check or care (take that flamebaiters!), but aren't those toads the ones that put out halucenogenic toxin if you lick them? I'm pretty sure it was bufotoxin.

  2. Re:Terrible Summary by inter+alias · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Do you or don't you like PKD? Why PKDhead?

  3. Re:Terrible Summary by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Love him! I just adopt a paranoid personality online - I feel we are trapped in a world that PKD saw, in nascent form, 30 years ago.

    When I first typed the name, I just about wet myself laughing. Immature that way, I guess.

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  4. Re:Terrible Summary by inter+alias · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Cool. I was trying to figure out how you could not like him but still write insightful posts... :)

    Which books do you like best? The man in the high castle or the more Ubik/game players of titan/flow my tears style?

    I seriously started to question reality after reading the game players of titan in one night.. :)

  5. Re:Terrible Summary by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ubik. For reals!

    Flow my tears, A scanner Darkly, and...

    VALIS! What happened here?

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  6. Re:Terrible Summary by aled · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What is this reality you are talking about?

    --

    "I think this line is mostly filler"