Question 1.
Cane toads have been a disaster in Australia. So then why were they such an enormous success 10 years earlier in Puerta Rico and 5 years earlier in Hawaii?
Question 2.
Is it true that all Australia’s cane toads are descended from just 102 individuals? And if so then what does that tell us about survival prospects for other species whose numbers are in the low hundreds?
Question 3.
The chemical that successfully conlrolled the cane beetle was introduced in 1970, then found to be carcinogenic and banned in 1987. So are we back to square one as regards the cane beetle.
Question 4.
Cane toads love to eat cockroaches. Are they keeping cockroach numbers down in Qld cities?
mollwollfumble said:
Question 3.The chemical that successfully conlrolled the cane beetle was introduced in 1970, then found to be carcinogenic and banned in 1987. So are we back to square one as regards the cane beetle.
Question 4.
Cane toads love to eat cockroaches. Are they keeping cockroach numbers down in Qld cities?
I’ll have a crack at 4. Probably not that you would notice. I recall reading that the house cockroach occupies a niche that is the house. Other cockroaches prefer leaf litter or tree bark and prefer the outside. If cane toads are eating cockroaches it’s probably not diminishing those in your house but competing with all the night critters that live outside.
mollwollfumble said:
Question 1.Cane toads have been a disaster in Australia. So then why were they such an enormous success 10 years earlier in Puerta Rico and 5 years earlier in Hawaii?
Question 2.
Is it true that all Australia’s cane toads are descended from just 102 individuals? And if so then what does that tell us about survival prospects for other species whose numbers are in the low hundreds?
Not a success in Hawaii:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yamaga/canetoads.html
Invasive in Puerto Rico:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_042939
2:
Yes.
Do these other species have constant breeding with 8,000 – 25,000 eggs per clutch?
Do these other species have such an active poison which stops predation?
Ta on number 4.
Question 5.
Why did it take until 1963, about 35 years after the cane toad was being scientifically studied in Puerto Rico, to discover that cane toads are deadly to pets?
mollwollfumble said:
Question 3.The chemical that successfully conlrolled the cane beetle was introduced in 1970, then found to be carcinogenic and banned in 1987. So are we back to square one as regards the cane beetle.
Question 4.
Cane toads love to eat cockroaches. Are they keeping cockroach numbers down in Qld cities?
Q3:
Encourage lots of crows. We had no cane toads in Moorooka, but lots of crows. Crows have a strategy to eat cane toads, and the strategy is taught to their young.
Q4: Nope. Not here anyway. We still have plenty of cockroaches.
Michael V said:
mollwollfumble said:
Question 1.Cane toads have been a disaster in Australia. So then why were they such an enormous success 10 years earlier in Puerta Rico and 5 years earlier in Hawaii?
Question 2.
Is it true that all Australia’s cane toads are descended from just 102 individuals? And if so then what does that tell us about survival prospects for other species whose numbers are in the low hundreds?
Q1Not a success in Hawaii:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yamaga/canetoads.html
Invasive in Puerto Rico:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_042939
2:
Yes.
Do these other species have constant breeding with 8,000 – 25,000 eggs per clutch?
Do these other species have such an active poison which stops predation?
I think without any intervention at all nature itself would find something that decides to take advantage of all that free hopping protein, might be a long time line though.
AwesomeO said:
I think without any intervention at all nature itself would find something that decides to take advantage of all that free hopping protein, might be a long time line though.
I can’t convince Mrs V to eat them even though there’s quite a few recipes of cane toads on the internet. Darwinites have been quite resourceful.
Question 6.
“To date, 112 helminth species have been recorded parasitizing B. marinus along its native and introduced range of distribution, with 40.5% of them reported from Mexico.”
Why are none useful as a biological control agent?
Michael V said:
AwesomeO said:
I think without any intervention at all nature itself would find something that decides to take advantage of all that free hopping protein, might be a long time line though.
I can’t convince Mrs V to eat them even though there’s quite a few recipes of cane toads on the internet. Darwinites have been quite resourceful.
It’s a pity that licking them doesn’t work. Then again druggies would probably just keep pet toads and it wouldn’t affect the live population.
Do they make the worlds softest leather? That would help, market it as aquastralis or something.
> I can’t convince Mrs V to eat them even though there’s quite a few recipes of cane toads on the internet. Darwinites have been quite resourceful.
LOL. Wish I’d thought of that.
Question 7.
Have cane toads reached Western Australia yet?
Question 8.
The Southern boundary of cane toad population. Is it still moving south, or only west now?
Q7.
Yes.
Peak Warming Man said:
Q7.
Yes.
Bloody useless Border Force!!!
JudgeMental said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Q7.
Yes.
Bloody useless Border Force!!!
To be fair they are not focused on internal threats.
mollwollfumble said:
> I can’t convince Mrs V to eat them even though there’s quite a few recipes of cane toads on the internet. Darwinites have been quite resourceful.LOL. Wish I’d thought of that.
Question 7.
Have cane toads reached Western Australia yet?
Question 8.
The Southern boundary of cane toad population. Is it still moving south, or only west now?
Q7 ——-> Yes, they are well into WA now.
I think they are moving south still, but very slowly. I was working FIFO east of Darwin when they came hopping through, after Arnhem Land held them up for so long. It was seriously amazing to see. One swing they were’t there. A week later, at the start of the next swing, it was impossible to not drive over them.
AwesomeO said:
JudgeMental said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Q7.
Yes.
Bloody useless Border Force!!!
To be fair they are not focused on internal threats.
I went to Uni with a guy who had previously been a WA Starling inspector. He was issued a 4WD, a gun, bullets and told to patrol the WA-SA border and shoot any starlings he saw. I suspect the job entailed patrolling from the front bar of a pub.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SBLf1tsoaw
Cane Toads An Unnatural History 1988
46 min doco, or mockumentary.
The population of the invasion front is like thousands of times bigger than an established population.
Peak Warming Man said:
The population of the invasion front is like thousands of times bigger than an established population.
Can’t we just round them up and kill them?
Peak Warming Man said:
The population of the invasion front is like thousands of times bigger than an established population.
Yeah, just like the Somme.
Michael V said:
mollwollfumble said:
> I can’t convince Mrs V to eat them even though there’s quite a few recipes of cane toads on the internet. Darwinites have been quite resourceful.LOL. Wish I’d thought of that.
Question 7.
Have cane toads reached Western Australia yet?
Question 8.
The Southern boundary of cane toad population. Is it still moving south, or only west now?
Q7 ——-> Yes, they are well into WA now.
I think they are moving south still, but very slowly. I was working FIFO east of Darwin when they came hopping through, after Arnhem Land held them up for so long. It was seriously amazing to see. One swing they were’t there. A week later, at the start of the next swing, it was impossible to not drive over them.
I’m watching something that says exactly the same about Humpty Doo. They arrived suddenly in amazing numbers.
Question 9.
What is the toxic component of their venom? And can cane toad venom be said to be more toxic than snake venom because snake venom is usually inactivated by the stomach juices when swallowed and cane toad venom isn’t.
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
The population of the invasion front is like thousands of times bigger than an established population.
Can’t we just round them up and kill them?
A couple of suggestions out there. One is to attract cane toads to a trap by broadcasting their breeding call.
Another suggestion is that cane toads + potassium hydroxide = fertiliser.
mollwollfumble said:
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
The population of the invasion front is like thousands of times bigger than an established population.
Can’t we just round them up and kill them?
A couple of suggestions out there. One is to attract cane toads to a trap by broadcasting their breeding call.
Another suggestion is that cane toads + potassium hydroxide = fertiliser.
I was watching this video a while back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLrtjFbkxiQ
In summary, cane toads need water every few days and will congregate around a water source during the dry season. This mob have developed a fence that will keep cane toads out but let native animals through or over. As the cane toads get desperate for water they come out of hiding and leap at the fence, the group patrols along the fence picking them up and collecting them for euthanisation and disposal. They have found that they can totally clear a local around in about 2 weeks.
Only problem is a bit labour intensive and these groups are volunteers. I’d like to see some govt. funded groups doing this on a permanent basis, to form cane toad stop lines and then slowly start creating pockets of toad free zones in national parks and high conservation areas.
> Only problem is a bit labour intensive and these groups are volunteers. I’d like to see some govt. funded groups doing this on a permanent basis, to form cane toad stop lines and then slowly start creating pockets of toad free zones in national parks and high conservation areas.
I appreciate the work of these volunteers. The government attitude seems to be that “nothing we have done has worked so nothing we can do will work”.
That’s a terrible attitude. The correct attitude would be “what did we do wrong last time and how do we fix it?”. Eg. Radio tagging could have been used to identify the exact location of the entire invasion front.
“The life history and ecology of the Cane toad was not fully
considered before its introduction, nor was i
ts interaction with the
Greyback beetle it was introduced to control. First, sugar cane can
reach 6 to 8 meters in height. The Greyback beetle usually feeds in
the top of the sugar cane stalks. Cane toads cannot fly or climb,
therefore could not reach the
beetles. Another problem was the
timing
–
the Greyback beetle tends to be out during the daytime
and Cane toads feed at night. The two species are not seasonally compatible either, so are not in
the same place at the same time of year. The Australian sugar
cane fields are much dryer than
those of the Cane toads’ native habitat and Hawaii. The toads need wet conditions to survive, so
quickly moved from the sugar cane fields to moister areas. Its range has expanded southward,
through Australia with no outlook
of control”
mollwollfumble said:
> Only problem is a bit labour intensive and these groups are volunteers. I’d like to see some govt. funded groups doing this on a permanent basis, to form cane toad stop lines and then slowly start creating pockets of toad free zones in national parks and high conservation areas.I appreciate the work of these volunteers. The government attitude seems to be that “nothing we have done has worked so nothing we can do will work”.
That’s a terrible attitude. The correct attitude would be “what did we do wrong last time and how do we fix it?”. Eg. Radio tagging could have been used to identify the exact location of the entire invasion front.
What we did wrong was introduce cane toads on the word of one man..
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
> Only problem is a bit labour intensive and these groups are volunteers. I’d like to see some govt. funded groups doing this on a permanent basis, to form cane toad stop lines and then slowly start creating pockets of toad free zones in national parks and high conservation areas.I appreciate the work of these volunteers. The government attitude seems to be that “nothing we have done has worked so nothing we can do will work”.
That’s a terrible attitude. The correct attitude would be “what did we do wrong last time and how do we fix it?”. Eg. Radio tagging could have been used to identify the exact location of the entire invasion front.
What we did wrong was introduce cane toads on the word of one man..
Though we gave would be golfers plenty of driving practice.
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
> Only problem is a bit labour intensive and these groups are volunteers. I’d like to see some govt. funded groups doing this on a permanent basis, to form cane toad stop lines and then slowly start creating pockets of toad free zones in national parks and high conservation areas.I appreciate the work of these volunteers. The government attitude seems to be that “nothing we have done has worked so nothing we can do will work”.
That’s a terrible attitude. The correct attitude would be “what did we do wrong last time and how do we fix it?”. Eg. Radio tagging could have been used to identify the exact location of the entire invasion front.
What we did wrong was introduce cane toads on the word of one man..
And one woman. I could probably find out her name if you’re really interested. She was the one who first brought the attention of the worldwide sugar cane industry.to the toad.
Malcom “battler empathy” Turnbull. snigger
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/malcolm-turnbull-to-make-company-tax-cuts-a-major-election-issue/9598788
Not everything is about politics, mv.
roughbarked said:
“The life history and ecology of the Cane toad was not fully
considered before its introduction, nor was it’s interaction with the
Greyback beetle it was introduced to control. First, sugar cane can
reach 6 to 8 meters in height. The Greyback beetle usually feeds in
the top of the sugar cane stalks. Cane toads cannot fly or climb,
therefore could not reach the beetles.”
I’ve actually heard conflicting stories about that. One is exactly as you said. But the other is quite different, it goes as follows (paraphrased).
Sugar cane farmers in Queensland were finding that their crops were dying before harvest. This was pinned down to a soil-living beetle larva (similar in appearance to cutworm) that was depriving the cane of water, literally stopping the water from entering the roots of the sugar cane by drinking all the water first, and also stopping the cane also from getting the dissolved nutrients. The cane was dying of thirst. Politically, this resulted in huge pressure from the sugar cane farmers lobby group on the government to do something.
It’d be interesting to check up which version is the correct one. First by looking up contemporary newspaper reports and second by looking up contemporary papers and conference proceedings.
raquel dexter, puerto rica conference 1932
JudgeMental said:
raquel dexter, puerto rica conference 1932
rico
sibeen said:
Not everything is about politics, mv.
Ha!
But Turnbull is a poisonous toad.
Malcom “battler empathy” Turnbull. snigger
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/malcolm-turnbull-to-make-company-tax-cuts-a-major-election-issue/9598788
Michael V said:
sibeen said:
Not everything is about politics, mv.
Ha!
But Turnbull is a poisonous toad.
Christ, compared to the alternatives within his own party he’s a fucking harmless tree frog.
Michael V said:
Malcom “battler empathy” Turnbull. sniggerhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/malcolm-turnbull-to-make-company-tax-cuts-a-major-election-issue/9598788
Holy! That was supposed to go into chat, the second time.
Sorry.
JudgeMental said:
raquel dexter, puerto rico conference 1932
That’s her. Good.
> First by looking up contemporary newspaper reports
Slight problem there. 60,000 newspaper articles about “sugar cane” in the Queensland press from 1900 to 1940. I think I need to refine the search a bit.
mollwollfumble said:
If history is a guide when you start delving around in old newspapers you are almost a conspiracist.
JudgeMental said:
raquel dexter, puerto rico conference 1932
That’s her. Good.
> First by looking up contemporary newspaper reports
Slight problem there. 60,000 newspaper articles about “sugar cane” in the Queensland press from 1900 to 1940. I think I need to refine the search a bit.
AwesomeO said:
I haven’t found either the conference manuscript or original paper.
mollwollfumble said:If history is a guide when you start delving around in old newspapers you are almost a conspiracist.
JudgeMental said:
raquel dexter, puerto rico conference 1932
That’s her. Good.
> First by looking up contemporary newspaper reports
Slight problem there. 60,000 newspaper articles about “sugar cane” in the Queensland press from 1900 to 1940. I think I need to refine the search a bit.
What the heck. This newspaper article was written in 1914, a very long time before the cane toad. A successful biological control of the cane beetle was already in place even by 1914. Is this a different cane beetle?
Dealing with the cane beetle borer,
the Government Entomologist (Mr.
H. Tryon), in a report to the De-
partment of Agriculture and Stock,
stated that in 1895 the office discov-
ered in New Guinea a parasite of the
borer, and the discovery was subse-
quently confirmed by a Hawaiian en-
tomologist, engaged in a project to
introduce the parasite to Honolulu,
where the beetle borer had become es-
tablished. A breeding station for
specimens of the parasite procured
by Mr Muir in Papua was established
in the Mossman district, and as an
outcome the insect since named Cer-
omasia sphenophori, had been estab-
lished in the canefields of the Sand-
wich Islands. When in Honolulu re-
cently Mr. Tryon, learned that steps
had been taken to effect the multi-
plication of the parasite, and colonies
had been distributed to wherever the
beetle borer occurred, and had been
proved efficacious in coping with
the cane pest.
Fiji could be
drawn upon advantageously, for it
had been bred there in great numbers
The C.S.R. Company was so im-
pressed with the work of the parasite
that it determined to endeavour to
introduce the insect from Fiji to the
Queensland canefields, and the first
consignments of the parasites had
arrived in the State in care of Mr. E.
R. Day. It was hoped that the para-
sites might prove in Queensland as
serviceable as in Honolulu, where
their spread was remarkably rapid.
At Kahuka plantation the borers had
been so severe that the sugar had been re-
duced to 4 tons per acre, but two
years after the introduction of the para-
sites the cane showed only slight in-
jury, and gave 7½ tons of sugar to
the acre, and the borers had become so
scarce that it was difficult to collect
them.
mollwollfumble said:
What the heck. This newspaper article was written in 1914, a very long time before the cane toad. A successful biological control of the cane beetle was already in place even by 1914. Is this a different cane beetle?Dealing with the cane beetle borer,
the Government Entomologist (Mr.
H. Tryon), in a report to the De-
partment of Agriculture and Stock,
stated that in 1895 the office discov-
ered in New Guinea a parasite of the
borer, and the discovery was subse-
quently confirmed by a Hawaiian en-
tomologist, engaged in a project to
introduce the parasite to Honolulu,
where the beetle borer had become es-
tablished. A breeding station for
specimens of the parasite procured
by Mr Muir in Papua was established
in the Mossman district, and as an
outcome the insect since named Cer-
omasia sphenophori, had been estab-
lished in the canefields of the Sand-
wich Islands. When in Honolulu re-
cently Mr. Tryon, learned that steps
had been taken to effect the multi-
plication of the parasite, and colonies
had been distributed to wherever the
beetle borer occurred, and had been
proved efficacious in coping with
the cane pest.Fiji could be
drawn upon advantageously, for it
had been bred there in great numbers
The C.S.R. Company was so im-
pressed with the work of the parasite
that it determined to endeavour to
introduce the insect from Fiji to the
Queensland canefields, and the first
consignments of the parasites had
arrived in the State in care of Mr. E.
R. Day. It was hoped that the para-
sites might prove in Queensland as
serviceable as in Honolulu, where
their spread was remarkably rapid.At Kahuka plantation the borers had
been so severe that the sugar had been re-
duced to 4 tons per acre, but two
years after the introduction of the para-
sites the cane showed only slight in-
jury, and gave 7½ tons of sugar to
the acre, and the borers had become so
scarce that it was difficult to collect
them.
Likely, since the two insects the cane toad was introduced to combat were natives.
From 1917, check if this is the same cane beetle. No, different beetle.
“the insects that you sent are the common borer beetle of sugarcane (Rhabdocnemis Obscura)”
Actually, Wikipedia has something on the sugar cane beetle.
“Dermolepida albohirtum, the cane beetle, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of sugarcane. Greatest damage is done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant. The grub feeds off the roots of the sugar cane.”
So it is a soil problem, the cane beetle does not bore into into the tops of the cane, and the cane toad would not have to climb to reach the beetles, just dig.
mollwollfumble said:
From 1917, check if this is the same cane beetle. No, different beetle.
“the insects that you sent are the common borer beetle of sugarcane (Rhabdocnemis Obscura)”Actually, Wikipedia has something on the sugar cane beetle.
“Dermolepida albohirtum, the cane beetle, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of sugarcane. Greatest damage is done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant. The grub feeds off the roots of the sugar cane.”
So it is a soil problem, the cane beetle does not bore into into the tops of the cane, and the cane toad would not have to climb to reach the beetles, just dig.
Dunno if it helps at all but I watched a show the other day that showed toads vision or mor accurately it’s perception was very selective. A toad ignored a moving vertical rod but snapped at at the same rod moving horizontally, ie more like a worm.
http://www.issct.org/proceedings/1932.html
list of speakers etc. Dexter down the page. link to paper.
JudgeMental said:
http://www.issct.org/proceedings/1932.htmllist of speakers etc. Dexter down the page. link to paper.
Well done. Brilliant!
Michael V said:
JudgeMental said:
http://www.issct.org/proceedings/1932.htmllist of speakers etc. Dexter down the page. link to paper.
Well done. Brilliant!
http://www.issct.org/pdf/proceedings/1932/1932%20Dexter,The%20food%20habits%20of%20the%20imported%20toad.pdf
It’s quite dense. Tomorrow. I get the impression…
Nup, tomorrow.
mollwollfumble said:
roughbarked said:
“The life history and ecology of the Cane toad was not fully
considered before its introduction, nor was it’s interaction with the
Greyback beetle it was introduced to control. First, sugar cane can
reach 6 to 8 meters in height. The Greyback beetle usually feeds in
the top of the sugar cane stalks. Cane toads cannot fly or climb,
therefore could not reach the beetles.”
I’ve actually heard conflicting stories about that. One is exactly as you said. But the other is quite different, it goes as follows (paraphrased).
Sugar cane farmers in Queensland were finding that their crops were dying before harvest. This was pinned down to a soil-living beetle larva (similar in appearance to cutworm) that was depriving the cane of water, literally stopping the water from entering the roots of the sugar cane by drinking all the water first, and also stopping the cane also from getting the dissolved nutrients. The cane was dying of thirst. Politically, this resulted in huge pressure from the sugar cane farmers lobby group on the government to do something.
It’d be interesting to check up which version is the correct one. First by looking up contemporary newspaper reports and second by looking up contemporary papers and conference proceedings.
Whatever the second story means. The cane toad was not the answer because of the first story being the facts.
mollwollfumble said:
From 1917, check if this is the same cane beetle. No, different beetle.
“the insects that you sent are the common borer beetle of sugarcane (Rhabdocnemis Obscura)”Actually, Wikipedia has something on the sugar cane beetle.
“Dermolepida albohirtum, the cane beetle, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of sugarcane. Greatest damage is done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant. The grub feeds off the roots of the sugar cane.”
So it is a soil problem, the cane beetle does not bore into into the tops of the cane, and the cane toad would not have to climb to reach the beetles, just dig.
But they didn’t.
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
From 1917, check if this is the same cane beetle. No, different beetle.
“the insects that you sent are the common borer beetle of sugarcane (Rhabdocnemis Obscura)”Actually, Wikipedia has something on the sugar cane beetle.
“Dermolepida albohirtum, the cane beetle, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of sugarcane. Greatest damage is done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant. The grub feeds off the roots of the sugar cane.”
So it is a soil problem, the cane beetle does not bore into into the tops of the cane, and the cane toad would not have to climb to reach the beetles, just dig.
But they didn’t.
Dig that is. They found other things to eat. Plenty of it, outside the cane fields.
Michael V said:
Michael V said:
JudgeMental said:
http://www.issct.org/proceedings/1932.htmllist of speakers etc. Dexter down the page. link to paper.
Well done. Brilliant!
http://www.issct.org/pdf/proceedings/1932/1932%20Dexter,The%20food%20habits%20of%20the%20imported%20toad.pdf
It’s quite dense. Tomorrow. I get the impression…
Nup, tomorrow.
That paper indicates that the cane toad were capable of doing the job if the farmers had followed the advice of:
8. The writer believes’ to have contributed evidence
to show that Bufo marimue can be effectively used as a biological control of Phylophaga, provided the proper conditions and favorite host plants are used in the banks ot the water reservoirs and main irrigation ditches.
A great many small reservoirs are scatterd through the cane growing sections of the south coast. Their banks, instead of being abandoned to noxious weeds, should be planted with, bananas, and possibly “gandules”, which might attract large numbers of adult. Phyllophaga which will inevitably fall a prey to the toads. This method will very’ materially reduce the “white grub” .‘injury after a number of years of persistent practice. .
All other’ methods of control of this pest have, so far failed, and we strongly advocate the effective use, under favorite conditions, of this amphibian inmigrant which is doing its full share of benefit to our sugar industry, and to which this International Congress should pay a tribute of gratitude.
The serious problem though was what to do with keeping the toads in the cane fields only.
Cactoblastis was useful at the time but to my knowledge has never been reported as having gone feral in Australia nor has it completly wiped out what it was brought in to control.
However; http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-cactoblastis-moth/3401768
The Cactoblastis moth wiped out prickly pear in Queensland 70 years ago. But now, that saviour has turned villain in the Caribbean and the United States, where it is destroying many native species of cactus and threatening the rural economy of Mexico.
Driving around in Australia, there is still plenty of prickly pear though apparently the cactoblastis is still keeping the numbers down to more managable levels, in Queensland. http://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/prickly-pear
A serious problem may be that more and more immigrants are planting more and more prickly pear everywhere. Locally the farmers were told that they have to start controlling the prickly pear on their farms. Some have complied but many haven’t and I haven’t heard of any prosecutions.The thing is though that arid reserves of shrinking remnant vegetation patches are increasingly filling up with prickly pear and the moth doesn’t seem to affect these populations.
In Queensland the plants I saw were mainly the tree pear which is a tree like form of the prickly pear. AFAIK the cactoblastis hasn’t wiped this species out.
roughbarked said:
The Cactoblastis moth wiped out prickly pear in Queensland 70 years ago. But now, that saviour has turned villain in the Caribbean and the United States, where it is destroying many native species of cactus and threatening the rural economy of Mexico.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-cactoblastis-moth/3401768
As for the cane toad, I don’t think we will ever solve the problem unless we piss off and leave Australia to continue evolving. We have seriously reduced the numbers of all the native birds and animals that may otherwise have learnt to control the toads.
In hindsight the farmers probably should have been encouraged to grow something other than sugar cane.
There is some hope in sight, however. Meat ants, a native insect of Australia, have been
found to kill smaller toads living around bodies of water. A parasitic Lung worm, native to South
America, also will kill the toads.
But do we need a parasitic lungworm introduction?
As others here have pointed out, cane toads were introduced on the basis of an extremely small amount of anecdotal advice, which was cherry-picked to give the desired answer. .
Their introduction was motivated to a large degree by the success of the cactoblastis moth. Suddenly, biological control seemed to be the answer to every pest species problem. Just find something that someone says eats your problem item, and get it spread about the place.
Cane toads were brought in by farmers, not by scientists or agricultural advisers, and indeed, in the face of advice to the contrary by scientists and advisers, which included advice about their toxicity (farmers with knees-brown experience weren’t going to take advice from some white-coated lab boffins!).
Cane toads do bugger-all to the local cockroach population. Twenty years of living in the Bundaberg area convinced me of that – there’s plenty of cane toads, and a vast plenty of cockroaches.
Most effective cane-toad control: an old 3-wood golf club. Efficient and very quick. When club meets cane toad nose at about 120mph, it’s all over in an instant.
captain_spalding said:
As others here have pointed out, cane toads were introduced on the basis of an extremely small amount of anecdotal advice, which was cherry-picked to give the desired answer. .Their introduction was motivated to a large degree by the success of the cactoblastis moth. Suddenly, biological control seemed to be the answer to every pest species problem. Just find something that someone says eats your problem item, and get it spread about the place.
Cane toads were brought in by farmers, not by scientists or agricultural advisers, and indeed, in the face of advice to the contrary by scientists and advisers, which included advice about their toxicity (farmers with knees-brown experience weren’t going to take advice from some white-coated lab boffins!).
Cane toads do bugger-all to the local cockroach population. Twenty years of living in the Bundaberg area convinced me of that – there’s plenty of cane toads, and a vast plenty of cockroaches.
Most effective cane-toad control: an old 3-wood golf club. Efficient and very quick. When club meets cane toad nose at about 120mph, it’s all over in an instant.
Unfortunately, the golf-club is illegal. Freezing them is not. Go figure.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
As others here have pointed out, cane toads were introduced on the basis of an extremely small amount of anecdotal advice, which was cherry-picked to give the desired answer. .Their introduction was motivated to a large degree by the success of the cactoblastis moth. Suddenly, biological control seemed to be the answer to every pest species problem. Just find something that someone says eats your problem item, and get it spread about the place.
Cane toads were brought in by farmers, not by scientists or agricultural advisers, and indeed, in the face of advice to the contrary by scientists and advisers, which included advice about their toxicity (farmers with knees-brown experience weren’t going to take advice from some white-coated lab boffins!).
Cane toads do bugger-all to the local cockroach population. Twenty years of living in the Bundaberg area convinced me of that – there’s plenty of cane toads, and a vast plenty of cockroaches.
Most effective cane-toad control: an old 3-wood golf club. Efficient and very quick. When club meets cane toad nose at about 120mph, it’s all over in an instant.
Unfortunately, the golf-club is illegal. Freezing them is not. Go figure.
Only semi-automatic golf clubs are illegal.
Michael V said:
captain_spalding said:
As others here have pointed out, cane toads were introduced on the basis of an extremely small amount of anecdotal advice, which was cherry-picked to give the desired answer. .Their introduction was motivated to a large degree by the success of the cactoblastis moth. Suddenly, biological control seemed to be the answer to every pest species problem. Just find something that someone says eats your problem item, and get it spread about the place.
Cane toads were brought in by farmers, not by scientists or agricultural advisers, and indeed, in the face of advice to the contrary by scientists and advisers, which included advice about their toxicity (farmers with knees-brown experience weren’t going to take advice from some white-coated lab boffins!).
Cane toads do bugger-all to the local cockroach population. Twenty years of living in the Bundaberg area convinced me of that – there’s plenty of cane toads, and a vast plenty of cockroaches.
Most effective cane-toad control: an old 3-wood golf club. Efficient and very quick. When club meets cane toad nose at about 120mph, it’s all over in an instant.
Unfortunately, the golf-club is illegal. Freezing them is not. Go figure.
In the .pdf you posted earlier it was stated that a quick slice of the back of the head had the entire system functions of the toad dead instantly.
> Most effective cane-toad control: an old 3-wood golf club. Efficient and very quick. When club meets cane toad nose at about 120mph, it’s all over in an instant.
The only human death I know of came from an oversight in cane toad control.
A man in Bowen was stabbing and bagging cane toads outside his caraven with a long metal spike. The spike went through the electrical cable feeding power to the caravan and electrocuted him.
i wandered into bunnings a few years ago to find they had pallets of spraycans that claimed to kill cane toads
i looked at the active ingredients to find that the active ingredient was whats in dettol
i mentioned this to one of the checkout chicks as i passed through and two days later found it had completely disappeared from sale
the human way to control toads could be spraying them with a contraceptive that stops them laying fertile eggs/ sperm
if you were glued up you’d create a little drone army that flies around spraying small amounts of a long lasting contraceptive directly onto the toads – this will confuse and existing fertile toads as they try to breed.
trying to admin contraceptives / killing toads will be a waste of time unless carried out by machines in an industrialised way.
with a drone you’d need something with a long tube that hangs down from the main body. a small chemical tank with contraceptive connected to a peristaltic pump – the chemical contains a chemical that fluoresces under a light carried by the drone (this stops further time being wasted on toads already treated).
in areas where toads can be lured in great numbers a laser that just blasts anything moving in a 10m kill zone
the drone flies along
or in lieu of contraception use something like acetone to extract nicotine from cigarette butt tobacco, you then spray solution on the toad, a concentrated caffeine solution might well do the same thing.
