ARTICLES
Love them or Hate them, Cane Toads are Here to Stay
By Dr Arthur White
Why does Everyone hate Cane Toads?
were not rigorous and rarely carried out unless there was a real
reason to do so.
The Frog and Tadpole Study Group of New South Wales (FATS)
run community information days in Sydney and other major cities
to inform people about the plight of native frogs. Invariably at
our frog stall, members of the public will congregate around
the terrarium that holds cane toads (Figure 1). Many New South
Welsh people have never seen a cane toad in the flesh and feel
a great need to gawk at one. Also invariably we are told all sorts
of stories about how mean and nasty toads are, and how best to
kill them.
Unfortunately, the sugar cane stems contained the eggs of two
types of longihorn beetle: the Frenchi Beetle (Lepidiota frenchi)
and the Grey-backed cane beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum). The
eggs inside the sugar cane stems duly hatched and the larvae
inside began to feast on the sugar-rich sap of the sugar cane
plant. For the first few years no-one noticed that the beetles
were present and the beetles duly matured and propagated,
infecting cane plantations along the Queensland coast. By 1900,
sugar cane beetle numbers had become so great that they were
affecting the yield of sugar from the plantations.
In the late 1880s and early 1900s the state of Queensland was
heavily reliant on sugar production as this accounted for the
majority of the state income. When the crops began to fail, the
cane growers went to the government for help and the government
went to the scientists for an answer. The Queensland government
established the Queensland Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations
in 1900 and various entomologists were employed to study the
biology of the cane beetles.
Some good science was conducted during this time — the
life cycles of several beetle species were described and an
understanding of their biology and ecology had been worked
out, enabling more focused control measures. Many field and lab
trials were done in a bid to develop effective controls including
the use of various chemical insecticides, soil-fumigation methods,
bio-controls such as parasitic fungi and native insects, physical
removal methods, and agricultural and cultivation practices.
Some of these treatments showed promise but were prohibitively
expensive or not readily available, and others were simply
ineffective.
Figure 1 Cane Toad Rhinella marinus. Photo by Steve Wilson
What is responsible for this public anguish? Why so much hatred
and contempt for a simple amphibian? Well the reasons for this
resentment lie back in time - but they have not been forgotten.
With further declines in revenue and growing protests from
the cane growers, the Premier of Queensland found himself
besieged by angry voters. The government had brought in the
infected cane plants so the government should fix the problem-
and they need to fix it now! Using simple logic, the Queensland
government reasoned that if the infected cane plants had come
from Hawaii and Hawaii can still produce large amount of sugar
cane sugar, they must have a way of dealing with the sugar
cane beetles. Queensland agriculture officials contacted their
counterparts in Hawaii to find out how the beetles were managed
in Hawaii. The solution, it turne