To: Daffynition
Bufos have been common in S. Fla. for many yrs. Another import.
My dog grabbed one, once.
His eyes rolled back, slobbering, etc. Got him to the vet in time.
Toads used to come to the dogs dish and eat his food.
Some were big, larger than an outstretched hand.
22 BB caps are very effective.
8 posted on
10/09/2012 3:24:51 PM PDT by
Vinnie
(A)
To: Vinnie
I understand they've been around for a while; They brought the toads over from Hawaii in 1935 in an ill-advised effort to wipe out another pesky species, sugar cane-destroying beetles. carnivorous ants were deployed to help thin out the environmental mistake that is the cane toad in Australia. They brought the toads over from Hawaii in 1935 in an ill-advised effort to wipe out another pesky species, sugar cane-destroying beetles.
The toxicity of these amphibians has since wreaked havoc on indigenous wildlife, and now they've introduced an answer as to how to get the meat-eating ants on their case: cat food.
Putting cat food close to ponds inhabited by baby cane toads attracts carnivorous ants that are also immune to the toads' poisonous skin. The ants then attack the baby toads and eat them.
"In one spot we tested, 98 percent of the baby toads were attacked within the first two minutes," researcher Rick Shine told Reuters. "It was a bit like a massacre." Shine said the study was aimed at boosting the numbers of ants around the breeding areas of cane toads, and not upsetting the ecological balance by introducing the insects to an area that they wouldn't normally be in.
13 posted on
10/09/2012 4:32:45 PM PDT by
Daffynition
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