 So
What Can Be Done About Toads?
Many people in Australia
have decided that there are just too many toads and they have spread too
far - therefore, why bother to try to get rid of them? Well, something
can be done and the first obstacle is to forget how many of them there
are and just get out there and concentrate on your own little patch. If
lots of people look after lots of little patches, a big impact can be
made.
But before you grab
a net and a plastic bag, we need to point out that toads should only be
disposed of if you are in an area where the Marine toad (cane toad - Bufo
marinus) is an introduced pest. There are more than 200 species of
Bufo worldwide and most of these are not pests - in fact, many
are endangered. Some Bufo species look like the cane toad as well
so the European toad (Bufo bufo) and the American toad (Bufo
americanus) for example, should NOT be hunted down and eliminated.
This disposal page is mostly for Australian use so if you are Australian,
read on!
You can help elminate
cane toads on your property, at a nearby playground or creek and at your
school ground. This can be done at various stages of the cane toad life
cycle. For example, you can pull their eggs out of ponds and dams; you
can scoop up toadpoles with aquarium nets (only if you can ACCURATELY
identify which are toads and which are frogs) and you can hunt for young
toads and adults. You can volunteer to join organised groups who are working
to clear cane toads from a particular site (such as Gladstone Toadbusters)
or you can organise your class to do this as a class project.
How to dispose of
toads is something that some locals look upon as a creative exercise based
on the Gary Larson notion 'how many ways can you skin a cat'. We have
heard some horrible accounts of what is done to toads just because they
are a pest. However, just because the toad is a pest, this is NO
EXCUSE for animal cruelty and sadism. The toad doesn't
know it's a pest and it feels pain like all other living animals. Cane
toads should be killed humanely and this means methods which invoke the
least amount of pain and trauma.
We recently found
a large toad while surveying for frogs in Cairns. Whatever happened to
this toad was a mystery until we had it checked by a vet, but our first
sight of it shocked us so much that it took our breath away. Nothing illustrates
a point like photos:
The eye on the left
was damaged and fused to the surrounding skin; the right eye was burnt
out entirely and the surrounding skin continued to dissolve after the
eye was gone. The vet's conclusion was that a caustic chemical was sprayed
into the eyes of this toad. No other damage was seen on the body and,
of course, the toad was in intense pain and left to suffer for a long
time. This kind of behaviour is disgusting -- pest or not.
- Don't use clubs
or sticks to bash cane toads or grab toads by their legs and bash them
against objects. There is a risk to you as well as being a cruel means
to kill the toad. Most of the poison in a cane toad is concentrated
in two raised areas just behind it's eyes called paratoid glands. If
you bash a toad and rupture either of those glands, the toxic fluid
can splatter you. If any of this should get into your eyes, you will
need medical attention and your vision will be affected for some time.
- Don't spray chemicals
on them such as bleach, hydrogen peroxide or Dettol. These have a reputation
of a fast kill but the reality is that not all of them actually kill
the toad outright. The amount of pain they do cause is unacceptable.
Hydrogen peroxide is an acid; bleach is an irritant and Dettol works
by short-circuiting the central nervous system (the sensation is probably
similar to being electrocuted). If you should spray something which
turns out to be a burrowing frog instead of a toad, this leads to a
painful death for the frog. We strongly discourage the use of chemicals
but for those who are aggro enough to persist, do not touch any frogs
you find once you have held the chemical container in your hands. The
slightest residues of these chemicals in your skin will still cause
death for the frog and it will take a long time to do it.
- Many Australians
consider running over toads with their cars to be a sport worthy of
an Olympic medal. However, swerving on the road is not a safe way to
drive and mistaken identity is common. Some frogs will sit on the road
looking very much like a toad and their colouration doesn't always display
well when hit with very bright headlights.
The
easiest and most humane way to eliminate toads is to get rid of them at
their egg stage. Pull the toad eggs out of the water and dispose
of them by either putting them into your compost bin, burying them in
the garden or leaving them on the lawn to dry in the sun. (See our Toad
Eggs page for identification.)
The
most humane way to kill juvenile and adult cane toads is to catch them
and put them into a secure container with air holes (plastic takeaway
food containers are ideal). Put the container in a refrigerator overnight
which causes the toad to go into a coma-like state. Then move the container
to the freezer the next morning and freeze until the next garbage collection
day or freeze it for a couple days and then bury them in the backyard
compost bin or garden bed.
It is perfectly safe
to store the toads in the fridge and freezer and we do this at home all
the time. If you get together with your neighbors to clear toads from
your street, one of them might have an old spare freezer which can be
used by several homes. Another benefit to having to catch the toads is
that you can examine them according to the characteristics shown in our
'Make No Mistake' page to make sure they are
definitely toads and not a species of ground dwelling frog. And one more
benefit to catching the toads is that you can help us study them by turning
in ones you find which are sick or deformed. (see our page on Illnesses
and deformities!)
Many people are afraid
to touch cane toads. However, their skin is dry and they don't release
any fluid from their glands unless you hit them or handle them very roughly.
Remember, in the early days, adults and children used to keep cane toads
as pets and they handled them all the time without problems. We used to
have a moderate size toad here named Petunia who was handled all the time
and taken to talks (she died from an airbourne disease that came in the
door with a sick frog). Even Glen Ingram, a Curator of the Queensland
Museum, had a huge pet toad named Betty who weighed well over 4 kilos!
If you are concerned about touching toads, you can wear gloves or put
a plastic bag over your hand. Always remember to wash your hands thoroughly
whenever you have handled cane toads.
A last thought: when
you next think of how you will kill the toads in your yard, ask yourself
if you would kill an Australian frog that way. If it is inhumane for the
frog, it is inhumane for the toad!
Last
updated: Dec. 29th, 2003
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