Thread: Death to cane toads

Originally Posted by UncleHo

If I remember correctly from my primary school days the Cacto-blastus beetle was another govt introduced species to eradicate the Prickly Pear, it did slow it down but the beetle found it preferred sugar cane stalks, so the Bufo-Marinus was introduced to eradicate the beetle, and, as they say the rest is history my appoligies to those in the know if my spelling of the species is incorrect

Your memory is fading UncleHo. You must be my age!

Cactoblastis cactorum is a moth, native to South America. The caterpillar feeds on Prickly Pear (and some other cactus species). Cane Beetles are a native species that go by the name of Dermolepida albohirtum. Their larvae are called Greyback Cane Grubs, and it is these that do the most damage to the cane. There is also another native, the Frenchi Cane Beetle, Lepidiota frenchi.

Cactoblastis use in Australia is lauded around the world as one of the great successes of biological control.

Cheers
KarlB

G'day KarlB

It probably is fading a bit, I left primary school Qld. in grade 8 scholarship year in 1957 so I am an old fogie now

See what happens when you are 14 and not interested in listening, more interested in discovering girls.

cheers

The latter part of this thread reminds me of a song we used to sing with the kids on bush trips......
I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly.......

Originally Posted by crump

the Asian House gecko hasnt been proven to displace native species, its ecology seems closely tied to human habitation, (its not like Brissy houses were overun with Gehyra's before they surfaced.) My thought is to be thankful for the (semi) natural pest control.

Perhaps, but as a basic observer, if the asian gecko is quite prolific around my house here in Oxley, Brisbane, it has to be surviving on what other insect eating species are or were.
I have one Aussie Gecko in the garage, and 15+ asians gecko all over the place. Haven seen a Huntsman spider in yonks, don't seem to have too many brown little garden lizards either.
May be a bad simplistic observation, but something is eating them, cause I'm not nuking them with pestersides.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

I see a simple answer here, there are approx 200 million cane toads in Australia. Our population is over 20 million. If we each go out and kill 10 cane toads we will have eridicated the problem.

thats a great idea, but many of us dont live near cane toads, can you come up with a figure for how many toads need killing per person for only those who live near toads?

We get the little (or in the case of the one last night, big) buggers using our dog's water bowl as a nice little swimming pool. Every so often the dog would have an off day, be off her food and then we busted the toads coming out from behind the air conditioner outdoor unit, swimming in the dog water bowl and taking off as soon as the patio light goes on.

We mucked around with a few different methods for killing them. Freeze spray, the type you use on an injury works well but isn't cheap. Another of our favourites is a throwing knife, I'm getting pretty good but it is messy to clean up and the buggers just won't die. But then we tried the spray we use to stop the dog chewing herself when she itches. All it is made from is tea tree oil mixed with water and applied using a spray bottle. Must have similar properties to dettol but in a stronger dose. Hit them with a couple of squirts and they are down for the count in a few seconds for an immature one and under a minute for a big one with harder skin. Cheap to buy, harmless and a bottle lasts a lot longer than a can. About $7 from coles, $2 spray bottle and a 200ml bottle of tea tree oil mixes up to about 5 or 10 spray bottles full which lasts forever.

Have to say the throwing knife is still fun every so often.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

I see a simple answer here, there are approx 200 million cane toads in Australia. Our population is over 20 million. If we each go out and kill 10 cane toads we will have eridicated the problem.

I probably kill that many in a week.

Originally Posted by crump

the Asian House gecko hasnt been proven to displace native species, its ecology seems closely tied to human habitation, (its not like Brissy houses were overun with Gehyra's before they surfaced.) My thought is to be thankful for the (semi) natural pest control.

I would suggest that the Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is a species we need to be very concerned about. The attached paper (HOSKIN, C.J. (2010) The invasion and potential impact of the Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Australia. Austral Ecology) is worth a read on the issue.

Cheers
KarlB