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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."
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 has been directed towards isolating a sex pheremone to disrupt the breeding cycle. The government fact sheet suggests removing the jelly strings of eggs from water & humane execution of adult cane toads. There are guides on Cane Toad control 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 on the cane toad. It's more just a dabble in CGI by film makers but I thought it worth mentioning given the topic.
My work here is dung.
Fortunately, there's an easy solution to this problem. It turns out that these toads can be made sterile if they eat enough kudzu, which they find to be extremely tasty. Just plant enough kudzu and this problem goes away completely.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
So evolved toxic toads are invading Darwin? You just can't make this sort of material up! I await posts of craven submission from Slashdotters willing to co-operate with the toxic toads.
You'd assume they learned their lesson from importing the rabbits.
New species + no predators = I, for one, welcome our new poisonous toad overlords!
We'll lick these toxic toads one way or another.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
KENT
Our top story, the population of parasitic tree lizards has exploded, and local citizens couldn't be happier! It seems the rapacious reptiles have developed a taste for the common pigeon, also known as the 'feathered rat', or the 'gutter bird'. For the first time, citizens need not fear harassment by flocks of chattering disease-bags.
Later, Bart receives an award from Mayor Quimby outside the town hall. Several lizards slink past.
QUIMBY
For decimating our pigeon population, and making Springfield a less oppressive place to while away our worthless lives, I present you with this scented candle.
Skinner talks to Lisa.
SKINNER
Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
LISA
But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
SKINNER
No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
LISA
But aren't the snakes even worse?
SKINNER
Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
LISA
But then we're stuck with gorillas!
SKINNER
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
Supplies!
france is invading australia?
Australia deploys troops for Amphibious Warfare
...but ultimately my money is on the toads.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
The Crocodile Hunter could just lure them to the soldiers using his infant son as bait. No, wait...
Seriously though, I live in South Florida, US where they also pulled this trick (to save money for the rich sugar cane barons, but that's another story) and it's had the same sort of disastrous results. As soon as the toads found out that there were suburbs nearby, they quickly abandoned the cane fields and settled in the nice comfy urban neighborhoods. The toxin is extremely poisonous therefore, not only do they have no known predators, but they also kill household pets who are unlucky enough to encounter and bite them.
There is not very much you can do to control the Bufo's except to remove sources or food and water. These things thrive on pet food and we'll always have them in my neighborhood as long as morons keep leaving their pet food outside in their driveways (which also attracts rats, possums, and other nasties). They're also said to be able to survive months underground during the dry season and then emerge in the wet which is just starting here now so needless to say, my block has been crawling with them for the last 3 weeks.
I've also seen very little on humane ways of eradicating these pests. One site advocates putting them in a bag in your freezer until they're frozen solid but this doesn't sit well with the wife I'm afraid. I've heard of people pouring ammonia and other toxins on them (these are sluggish toads easily hand caught, not leaping frogs) but this seems cruel as well as not very envrionmentally friendly. We have a large dog who pounces on anything that moves, so needless to say controlling these things is a real concern. I personally know of several people who have lost their pets in the last year due to deadly encounters with Bufo's and that's one reason my dog never goes into the yard alone for any length of time.
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?