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When i was a teenager,many years ago:(,we used to shoot them with a mates air rifle.It had a scope on it,& we used a torch for light.Good fun & they were easy targets.The best place to get them were under the street lights,they used to hang around them waiting for insects.
There is actually one snake around that isn't affected by the toads venom,i think it may the common non venomous water snake,often called the keelback.
G'day Scarry :)
Don't get the Keelback mixed up with the Rough Scaled Tiapan :o aka Agressive Tiapan,Western Tiapan known locally (Caboolture area) as "Scally Charlie" there is not much that can survive his bite :eek: they look very like a Keelback, but react like a king brown and will chase you for sport.
cheers
Correct,& one of the deadliest snakes around,only difference between them is if you look at scale counts.Don't know if rough scaled can survive toad venom as well?Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleHo
Apparently the rough scaled is not as common in our area,but we stay well away from both.The red belly black is also very aggressive at times,likes the waterways as well,we used to see huge one's around,didn't go near them.
Bufo Marinus, native to Central America. Introduced circa 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations as a hoped for biological control of the the Greyback beetle and its grub. The depredations of this insect were such as that it could be likely that no sugar industry could exist in its habitat. Desperate measure for a desperate time.Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleHo
Controlled experiments showed that the toad had a voracious appetite for the insect so it was released hoping that it could be successful like the Cactoblastis insect used to defeat the prickly pear disaster. Unfortunately the toad didn't restrict its diet to the Greyback beetle and grub.
Chemical control was not achieved until after WWII when the chlorinated hydrocarbon family of insecticides became available. BHC, Lindane, Gammexane, DDT, etc. Most now banned for any but highly restricted circumstances.
I took this shot of a Tiapan which I think it is a good ID imageQuote:
Originally Posted by scarry
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/
Good photo Arthur. Hope you were using a telephoto lens for that shot. :o
For those particularly interested, there is currently a Cane Toad Threat Abatement Plan being produced. The public consultation period has passed but the draft plan is still available from Draft Cane Toad (Bufo marinus) Threat Abatement Plan along with other useful Cane Toad information and links, including a quite reasonable factsheet at http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiv...ne-toad-fs.pdf.
Cheers
KarlB
We have seen a Redbelly black eating a Clarence River Rough Scale snake, and the very deadly nocturnal Rough Scale Snake was caught in our bathroom once. We do catch snakes alive and relocate them, but not for others--way too dangerious-- so that this rough scale was relocated. So as Red belly blacks eat other more dangerious snakes we do want to get rid of the Cane Toad that is killing way too many of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleHo
I wonder if something like a Tea-Tree oil spray wwould kill the cane toad as well as Dettol, and it may be enviromently friendly.
Have not got cane toads where I live--1000 feet above sea level, but they are found less than 20 km away from me, so the invasion is coming. Maybe winters are too cold for them where I am [but we are frost free, at our house, but see frost just a bit below us].
or had a big sheet of glass in between you as in a cage.Quote:
Originally Posted by BMKal
Not being a smoker, therefore never having a cigarette with me, I am wondering.Quote:
Originally Posted by woody