I know they're not a plant, but they are invasive, and they tend to hang out on plants...anyhow, our county's invasive species task force director sent me this article and I just had to share it with everyone.
Australia's not just a land of 'roos. It's also a country where an oil can of Foster's and a toad go hand in hand.
Just bring a cane toad into Tom Hedley's Red Beret bar in Queensland, and he'll give you a beer, News Limited of Australia reported Monday.
"Hell, I'll give them two beers," said Hedley, known Down Under as the richest man in the state of Queensland.
Hedley decided upon the toads-for-beer promotion to help control the population of these pesky amphibians, whose numbers have swelled to 200 million in Australia.
"As far as I am concerned, they're pests and a nuisance to society," Hedley said. "If offering a beer for a bag of toads is one way to wipe them out once and for all, then I am all for it."
Hedley's project isn't the first time Australians have traded an animal for a cold one.
A beer-for-toad bounty in the neighboring Northern Territory was a success, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"How it worked in Darwin is they brought in the toads to the RSPCA to be humanely euthanized and they were then issued a voucher to get a beer — with a daily limit on the number of beers," RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty told News Limited.
"It could be more than a gimmick," he said. "It could seriously help reduce the toad population, especially around suburbia."
Cane Toads - A Solution?
What a riot! A beer for a toad! How innovative.
I am considering offering a good merlot for bag of gypsy moth egg masses.
Ding dong...
Isn't that interesting?! I wish they'd do something here, a beer or a good merlot for a dozen HOSP or EUST.......
Reminds me of the commercial for the
Budweiser frogs.
Bud
Weis
Err...
did you happen to see the one they found that was HUGE. I think they said it was the size of a football... not sure what they were gonna do with it though.... i read part of the article where it said what they were doing with all those toads... and i couldnt read it anymore.... something about making good fertilizer.... and i had to stop. (granted cane toads will kill anything that puts it in it's mouth... and i'd be devastated if my pet died due to the cane toads..... )
I think they described it as the size of a chihuahua! No matter, I understand they are awful at any size. Try to tinker with the ecological balance and sometimes it can really backfire.
The scary thing is they said that one was a male and the females are normally the bigger ones. I wonder what its momma looked like! I read it was over two pounds - you think that would get you two beers on the house.
Tho few animals here in the U.S. will try to eat a wart toad they are also toxic and can kill a good size dog.
i think the first summer we had Buddy, he would have been 10 mo old.... i know he picked up a toad... as he will chase just about anything.... then ever since that one night... if he sees a toad in the yard, he just looks at it, then goes about his business. so it's possible he got a "taste of something".
but i would certainly view toads in a different light if it happened to kill my dog.
We had a neighbor with a daschound that would eat toads. It always made her (the dog) instantly sick. The goofy dog never stopped eating them when she found them. They are very prevelant here so it was not unusual for me to look over the fence and see her wretching away and foaming at the mouth. Up until that I always that beleived that a dog would instinctively avoid anything poisionous. Boy was I ever wrong.