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Army Sent to Fight Millions of Invading Toxic Toads
Posted by
Hemos
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:31 AM
from the can-you-lick-them-to-get-high dept.
from the can-you-lick-them-to-get-high dept.
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."
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Very Little Information (Score:5, Informative)
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.
So hungry... (Score:5, Funny)
mmmmm... Lunch.
-Rick
Parent
Re:So hungry... (Score:4, Funny)
Though come to think of it, I'm not sure I'd want to actually try and eat a regular hallucenogenic toad whole either....
Parent
Keep away from mouth (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So hungry... (Score:3, Funny)
Finally, we discover what really happened to the dinosaurs! I guess they were just looking for a buzz too....
Re:So hungry... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So hungry... (Score:5, Insightful)
We are resistant to cane toad venom. Our adaptation is specifically the ability to be smart enough not to ingest the stuff.
Parent
Re:Very Little Information (Score:3, Insightful)
Still I'm sure they have some idea how the army would be used. Locally deployed poison?
I suggest the Ripley strategy (Score:5, Funny)
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Parent
Re:Very Little Information (Score:4, Insightful)
The white paper is probably spot-on: Kill the adults, destroy the eggs. Lather, rinse, repeat for each breeding cycle.
It might cost a lot, but it is possible. The most expensive part will be eradicating isolated resevoirs of breeding populations.
As to what you do after you trap them: make fertilizer out of them.
Parent
Re:Very Little Information (Score:3, Informative)
(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog [wikipedia.org])
Re:Very Little Information (Score:3, Funny)
You mean like this? -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_gun [wikipedia.org]
Some Information (Score:4, Informative)
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:
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...
Parent
Re:Very Little Information (Score:4, Insightful)
Idiot politicians will reap big benefits for "doing something" about the problem from the idiot voters (in case you couldn't tell, "idiot voters" are in the majority in the USA).
Parent
Re:Very Little Information (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Seargent! Are you licking that toad? (Score:5, Funny)
A solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A solution (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A solution (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A solution (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, the poetic justice! (Score:5, Funny)
Again!? (Score:5, Funny)
New species + no predators = I, for one, welcome our new poisonous toad overlords!
Go to your local plant nursery, look around (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:Go to your local plant nursery, look around (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Not to worry (Score:5, Funny)
oblig. simpsons (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:oblig. simpsons (Score:3, Funny)
"A subplot through the episode where Bart brought his pet frog into the country past customs. where it reproduces and spread rapidly throughout the country and ruins Australia's ecology (a reference to the actual introduction of non-native Cane Toads into Australia.)"
I can't find the exact quote, but it's something like:
Lisa: That's a frog
Australian guy: Frog? That's a funny name for it. I'd have called it a wopple-dinge
Re:oblig. simpsons (Score:3, Funny)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_vs._Australia [wikipedia.org]
Owner: [sweeping a bunch of toads out] Get out, get out! Shoo, shoo.
Get out of here, yuck! These bloody things are everywhere.
They're in the lift, in the lorry, in the bond wizard, and all
over the malonga gilderchuck.
Clerk: They're like kangaroos, but they're reptiles, they is.
M
Biological warfare (Score:4, Insightful)
There tends to be an unintended consequence, which often may be much worse than the origional affliction.
Although I hope they think carefully about this type of behaviour in the future, I doubt it.
The biological ideas they're coming up with to fight drugs in the US are much scarier than a few million frogs.
Mr. President, Dr. Evil is on the line: (Score:3, Funny)
Good day, gentlemen. As you are no doubt aware, I have recently perfected my race of genetically enhanced killer cane toads. My invincible batrachian army is currently rampaging across the continent of Australia, laying waste to all in their path. There is currently talk of deploying the Australian army to attempt to stem the tide of conquest...I'll tell you now that you needn't bother...the toads are quite unstoppable, and they only obey my commands.
You see, gentlemen, things will only get worse...even now, cargo containers filled with thousands of my warty warriors are quietly being delivered to major cities in every country in the world. At my signal, these containers will be opened via remote control, releasing the toads to wreak havok upon your fragile environments. As the toads spread relentlessly, they will destroy entire ecosystems, severely compromising the food supply of the planet. As the global famine ensues, no place on the planet will be safe. You will fall upon one another like wolves...civilization as you know it will cease to exist...that is...unless you pay me...
One hundred billion kajillion fafillion dollaaars!!!
Gentlemen, you have my demands...peace out.
Re:Mr. President, Dr. Evil is on the line: (Score:3, Funny)
didnt RTFM (Score:5, Funny)
Re:didnt RTFM (Score:3, Funny)
Echos of Another Great Campaign 74 Years Earlier (Score:4, Interesting)
All the markings of a bad B movie (Score:2, Funny)
This is no kind of solution (Score:5, Funny)
Sending in the army to kill the frogs? (Score:3, Funny)
Simple (Score:3, Funny)
Oblig. South Park (Score:4, Funny)
Dougie: Simpsons Did It!
Episode 6x16: Bart vs. Australia.
Diversity is strength. (Score:4, Funny)
Better headline (Score:5, Funny)
Should be a good fight... (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia... (Score:4, Funny)
No, really!
"A DIA 1975 report, "Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research, described "a scientific breakthrough of tremendous significance." Soviet scientists had reportedly learned that "psychic" abilities stemmed from a kind of brain energy. This energy, it was claimed, had been extracted from the brain into a beam. The beam was focused on houseflies, who "died instantly." A Soviet "killer psychic," one Nina Kulagina, was even able to "stop" the heart of a laboratory frog."
http://www.markriebling.com/archives/00000304.htm
wait wait wait! (Score:4, Funny)
Wonderful Cane Toads movie (Score:4, Informative)
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:
n -to-fight-toxic-toad-invasion-in-australia.htm [wowozanga.com]
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-i
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/canetoads/ [badmovies.org]
torrent (Score:3, Informative)
I saw it a few months ago. very funny.
Simple Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Do *not* fire a 22 bullet in populated areas (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to kill a toad with a 22, use "snake shot". That is tiny pellets in a 22 cartridge.
Why fight nature? Get rid of the dog and make pets of the toads?
Re:We shall fight them in the ponds, we shall ... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, at least he's close. It took a last-minute phone call to abort the 5th Airborne who just about to go into Vienna.
Re:Someone needs to build a toadba. (Score:3, Interesting)
Aussie crows are starting to learn how to flip the toads over. This is only 70 years. The ecosystem will correct this problem. It may take a bit of time but the ecosystem is very resiliant. Its been able to handle everything thrown at it for at least the last 3.8 billion years and a lot of things have happened worse than a cane toad.
However - I will admit they are ugly. Also, they make a mess when you drive over them. The thing