Hello, welcome back to interview with the pest’s blog. Today we will be interviewing a species the was introduced to Australia to help stop another pest that fed on sugar cane. We will be covering why they were introduced, their ecology, impact/threats to Australia and how are they controlled. Say hello to our second pests, the Cane Toad.
Cane Toad: Hi everyone, my name is Cane Toad or “toad” for short. I was introduced to Australia in 1935 as a means of controlling the cane beetle the fed on the sugar cane before agricultural chemicals were introduced by the sugar cane industry to control the cane beetle (environment.gov.au, 2020).
Q: So, what is your diet like in Australia? Is there a particular habitat you like?
Cane Toad: As I am a member of the family Bufonidae or “true toads” I prefer moist warm habitats, but I can survive in harsh conditions such as droughts and floods. I am characterized by my dry yellow/brown skin with large parotoid glands behind my head as shown in the picture below. My diet includes beetles, termites and ants, but I will eat anything I can swallow. My scientific name is Bufo marinus (Rhinella marina) (pestsmart.org.au, 2020).
Diagram by australianmuseum.net.au
Cane Toad: Since I was introduced to deal with the cane beetle that was affecting the sugar cane industry, I have spread across the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. The Cane Beetle and I do not cross paths as the beetle lives high on the sugar cane and I cannot jump that high or climb.
Many native predators have died trying to eat me as I can produce bufotoxin from my glands which causes rapid heartbeats, excessive salivation, convulsions, paralysis and death (wwf.org.au, 2020). My native frogs are killed by mistake as they look like me in the picture below (australianmuseum.net.au, 2020).
Native frogs that
are mistaken as Cane Toads by australianmuseum.net.au
Cane Toad: There is currently no large-scale control for me as I am difficult to control. By removing long gelatinous strings with eggs from ponds can help stop more cane toads as I can lay up to 35000 eggs. I can be killed humanely by commercial sprays from hardware stores (business.qld.gov.au, 2020).
That is all for this interview, next time we will be covering a species of reptile that is competing with native reptiles for food and is harming the native insect population. Below in the references are websites that contain more information on the Cane Toad for reading.
References
https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog/amri-news/how-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-a-cane-toad-and-a-native-australian-frog-species/
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry/agriculture/land-management/health-pests-weeds-diseases/pests/invasive-animals/other/cane-toad
https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive-species/publications/factsheet-cane-toad-bufo-marinus
https://pestsmart.org.au/pestsmart-factsheet-cane-toad/
https://www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/10-facts-about-cane-toads#gs.65kvng
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