Comments on: How do I get rid of cane toads?

By: Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 02:56:24 +0000

Good point Judi, absolutely. You can see lovely little brown striped marsh frog above in the photo above. A good way to tell the difference is the way they stand. Toads in resting position seem to be sitting up tall whereas frogs sit low and flat.

By: Judi B

Judi B — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 20:09:16 +0000

people also need to know that not everything brown is a toad, frogs come in colours other than green. I have 3 ponds and the frogs at night are deafening don't hear very many toads here which I like.

By: Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 05:29:24 +0000

Thanks or your comment Trace. That's a tragic story about the girl. I think you may be right – it's probably more to do with the sprays than the toad. I understood that the beetles were a severe problem which is why the toads were introduced, but unlike their impact in Hawaii and the Carribbean Islands, the box of toads shipped to Gordonvale, just south of Cairns, did not impact the beetle – they could not jump high enough to where they lived on the cane. Also, at the time of year when the beetle's larvae were hatching from the ground, no toads were about. My understanding is that the cane toad had no impact on the cane beetles at all and farmers had to go back to the use of chemicals to kill the beetle. I would be really interested to hear if there were stories of success.

By: Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 05:17:21 +0000

Merry Christmas Margaret. Thanks for sharing that information.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 16:44:04 +0000

Hi Morag, a guy who was at a gardening talk explained to me that cane toads have to have at least 11 inches of water depth to breed but can't jump higher than 23 inches, so if you have shallower ponds etc.than the breeding depth they can't breed and if you have water pots deeper than jump height they can't use that either.
I hope I have remembered the figures correctly, it was a few years ago and the guy said he belonged to a Brisbane frog breeders group, their ponds were 8 inches deep, this might be handy information to pass along when you are discussing toads and I am sure converting to centimeters would be more relevant to younger people.

By: Trace Willans

Trace Willans — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 16:44:03 +0000

I believe Cane farmers view the toads a bit differently than the rest of us. I was told by one that before cane toads the cane beetles were so thick that in one incident a young girl went out to give her father a lantern one night and she was smothered by the beetles and died. They are not so thick anymore but that may be the sprays rather then the toads. But at the time it made a huge difference.