# Aussie Meat Ants May Be Invasive Cane Toad's Achilles' Heel



## News Bot (Mar 31, 2009)

*Aussie ant threatens toxic toad*

*Published:* 30-Mar-09 11:11 PM
*Source:* AFP via NEWS.com.au

THEY'VE tried gassing it, freezing it, running over it in cars, whacking it with golf clubs and turning it into compost.

*Read More...*


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## whcasual79 (Mar 31, 2009)

are these ants found in QLD?? cuz if they are wouldnt they have already attacked the cane toads??


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## News Bot (Mar 31, 2009)

*Published:* 30-Mar-09 02:00 PM
*Source:* ScienceDaily

Ecologists in Australia have discovered that cane toads are far more susceptible to being killed and eaten by meat ants than native frogs. Their research reveals a chink in the cane toad's armor that could help control the spread of this alien invasive species in tropical Australia.

*Read More...*


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## herptrader (Mar 31, 2009)

It might be an Achilles' heel but it does not sound like a silver bullet to me. The balance still seems to be on the side of the toads.

Tries to think of a way to to summons vast armies of meat ants!


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## Sturdy (Mar 31, 2009)

herptrader said:


> It might be an Achilles' heel but it does not sound like a silver bullet to me. The balance still seems to be on the side of the toads.
> 
> Tries to think of a way to to summons vast armies of meat ants!



ill start making honey....

there were some other really good reads aswell on that site about cane toad controll


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## seanjbkorbett (Mar 31, 2009)

yer,dont get yah hopes up.!..it also says cane toads r active during the day??,caine toads r nocturnal arnt they :S..yes iv come across sum during the day either dead,or under sumthing or in a drain pipe!but iv neevr seen a active eating cane toad during the day!


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## scorps (Mar 31, 2009)

You do get active toads during the day around Cairns but only when their is really strong rain.


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## Naja_nivea (Mar 31, 2009)

whcasual79 said:


> are these ants found in QLD?? cuz if they are wouldnt they have already attacked the cane toads??



Yeah that is what i am thinking, if they are so effective and ants so widespread why are cane toads thriving and spreading across country?


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## licky (Mar 31, 2009)

yes the ants are.
Im sure they are referring to those pinky red ones that biuld those giant mounds (not fire ants)
You throw a rock or stand on them like a billion ants come out to attack you


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## seanjbkorbett (Mar 31, 2009)

licky said:


> yes the ants are.
> Im sure they are referring to those pinky red ones that biuld those giant mounds (not fire ants)
> You throw a rock or stand on them like a billion ants come out to attack you



ahah yer i know them ants..ahah they crazzii as!!!!!...theres alot of them in south australia..havnt seen THAT many up here..but u do get them in qld... so the caine toads r active during the day..but in heavy rains,and i dont think many ants attack in the rain!.(we need rain ants)...so yeh..theres no real hope so far!..unless they bring in a law where u "have" to kill them if u see them..like some other pests in australia.. e.g carp,red eared slider turtles. :lol:...i cant stand toads!they are interesting..but still what they doing to our reptiles is just sad:cry:


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## licky (Mar 31, 2009)

yes we get them in QLD
but never seen them out after dark which when the toads are


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## tooninoz (Mar 31, 2009)

licky said:


> yes the ants are.
> Im sure they are referring to those pinky red ones that biuld those giant mounds (not fire ants)
> You throw a rock or stand on them like a billion ants come out to attack you



They don't just build the mounds - that's usually only in wet areas. These ants are prolific on the G Coast. Pale red in colour, about 10-12mm long and look spindly. They look like mini versions of the meat ants we used to get in NSW.
But wait til you get bitten by one....it's the most excruciating pain. Like a paper wasp sting x 10. 
I don't know which is the lesser of two evils?!


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## Pandora Pythons (Mar 31, 2009)

All I can say is...Go The Ants!

Hopefully these ants could be the long-term resolution for Red Bellies.


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## Australis (Mar 31, 2009)

"They found cane toads opt to live in open microhabitats and are *active during the day*,"


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## spilota_variegata (Mar 31, 2009)

All we need to do is to let a billion Chinese people imigrate into Australia with the proviso that they must kill one cane toad a day as a visa requisite. It worked for flies in China and surely there must be more flies than cane toads. I should get into politics 

BTW, if anyone is going to have a dig at me for being racist, please replace Chinese with the nationality of your choice.


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## haymista (Apr 1, 2009)

spilota_variegata said:


> All we need to do is to let a billion Chinese people imigrate into Australia with the proviso that they must kill one cane toad a day as a visa requisite. It worked for flies in China and surely there must be more flies than cane toads. I should get into politics
> 
> BTW, if anyone is going to have a dig at me for being racist, please replace Chinese with the nationality of your choice.


 
you know that kinda makes sense... maybe americans, after all the toads came from there in the first place


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## cris (Apr 1, 2009)

Australis said:


> "They found cane toads opt to live in open microhabitats and are *active during the day*,"



What they dont mention in the article is that its small toads they are refering too, not the adults. I cant imagine meat ants eating many adult toads but they would be able to kill heaps of little ones and they are active during the day unlike the adults.


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## zulu (Apr 1, 2009)

*re Aussie*

Another cry for funding,toads spread with the help of biologists in the first place to hawaii etc,they got funding then so why not now,give generously and generously again to get rid of ants.


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## licky (Apr 1, 2009)

oi Cris you ever seen these ants eat sumthin?
put a cane toad on one of these nests, count how long it lasts


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## JasonL (Apr 1, 2009)

Well, they have to show something for their Government grants.... they seem to come up with partial answers every six months or so now...


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## kandi (Apr 1, 2009)

there wanting to plant meat ant colonies near water holes so when the youngens "toads" come out the ants will eat them, personally i feel very afraid what else is going to drink at a water hole and become victims to meat ants. it is a disaster waiting to happen look what happened when they introduced the toad "fools"put a bounty on a toad and there the problem is solved. Instead of cashing in cans or bottles it will be toads. Killed humanely of co****.


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## moosenoose (Apr 1, 2009)

Great!! Swarms of bloody ants! That's all we need! Yippee 

Does anyone else think this is the most STUPID idea they've ever come up with?? We're doomed! The toads are here to stay if this is the best thing they've come up with!


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## Arete (Apr 2, 2009)

Hmm ants vs toads, I saw a talk on it at the latest ASH conference. It's an interesting fact but that's about it. Ants far outstrip any other animal for abundance of biomass in Australia. I.e. for every toad, there's orders of magnitude more ants by weight (let alone by numbers). As such, if the ants were going to have a significant impact on toad survivability, the toads would have never got a foothold. 

A lot of the Team Bufo projects (egg water traps, ants, etc)are interesting, but not really viable ways to control toad spread. However some of their research is pretty optimistic in that snakes affected by toads seem to be shifting behaviourally (not eating toads) and morphologically (smaller snakes can't ingest a fatally toxic sized toad) in areas where toads have been established long term, and rcovering. No extinctions are currently attributed to toads, and hopefully that will remain to be the case. 



zulu said:


> Another cry for funding,toads spread with the help of biologists in the first place to hawaii etc,they got funding then so why not now,give generously and generously again to get rid of ants.


 
Sorry, but working in the scientific arena, this annoys me. First things first, Rick Shine's Team Bufo doesn't need any more funding. The team is growing at an exponential rate and even Rick isn't sure it's size is sustainable. It's one of the worst examples of a project "crying for funding" in this country. People are throwing money at them. 

Also, it seems more and more that the "cry for funding" line gets pulled out every time a researcher finds something that needs attention. The fact is, if you try and publish falsified or doctored results at all, let alone in the context of a demand for more funding and get caught, it would be professional suicide. In the current peer reviewed, and high competition environment we have for ARC fundng, the chances of getting away with it are slim. 

It simply isn't really happening, or a least nowhere near on the scale that certain sensationalist columnists in publications of dubious journalistic integrity would like you to believe.


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## Australis (Apr 2, 2009)

Arete said:


> As such, if the ants were going to have a significant impact on toad survivability, the toads would have never got a foothold. .



I would of thought the same.. doesn't seem to be slowing them down to date at least.


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