Reward to catch a deadly pest

Wildlife authorities in Australia are so desperate to combat the country's worst pest, the dreaded cane toad, they are staging a competition to find the best-designed trap.

The poisonous amphibians have been marching across the continent since they were introduced to Queensland in 1935 in an effort to eradicate cane beetles from the sugar crop. They have ravaged populations of indigenous fauna, including kookaburras, snakes, goannas - a type of sand monitor - and quolls (native cats).

In an attempt to halt their advance, the Northern Territory Government is now offering a A$15,000 ($16,400) reward to the inventor of the most effective trap or "attractant".

Cane toads secrete a deadly toxin when threatened by predators, and have even killed dingoes and freshwater crocodiles. They have a voracious appetite and a rampant libido, allowing them to colonise an area rapidly. Dogs have died within 15 minutes of eating one.

Australians have already begun work on designs. Andrew Arthur, a Northern Territory musician, has come up with the "Toad Blaster" - a battery-powered loudspeaker system that replicates the mating call of male toads, luring females to their deaths.

Arthur has tested his invention on a property south of Darwin. "I got an immediate reaction," he said: "All the males in the area started arching up and calling. It seemed that both the males and females were drawn to it, and started moving towards the sound."

One businessman, Harry Maschke, has built a trap with circular swinging doors that drop the toads into buried buckets. It also incorporates lights, to attract insects and increase its appeal to toads.

Zoologists are also researching gene technology to prevent the pests from developing into sexually mature adults.

In Queensland, which remains the toad's principal habitat, locals use more primitive methods. On wet evenings, drivers weave across the highway, punching the air each time they squash one beneath their tyres. One Queenslander swears by a concoction of two parts methylated spirits, one part Dettol, which he sprays on intruders in his backyard.

The cane toad is a spectacular example of the perils of introducing exotic fauna. Originally from Venezuela, the toads - 101 of them - were first released in Gordonvale, south of Cairns, where they ignored the cane beetles but ate virtually everything else.

They then fanned out across the country, covering up to 50km a year and reaching the Northern Territory in the late 1990s. Enterprising toads turned up in Perth and Adelaide after hitching lifts on lorries. They have also penetrated as far south as northern New South Wales, where one recently appeared in a schoolyard in Coffs Harbour.

In northern Queensland, cane toads the size of dinner plates carpet the pavements on rainy days. On warm evenings they congregate in suburban backyards, stealing pet food and snacking on insects. Locals have tried every means of extermination.

Even the nightly massacre on the roads makes a tiny dent in an estimated population of 100 million.

Some Queenslanders are not averse to their warty neighbours. Children dress them up in doll's clothes, and cane toad races are staged in Cairns pubs. Their skins are made into purses and handbags for tourists. Curiously, there are devotees who swear by the hallucinogenic powers of their venom. The 1970s saw an epidemic of toad-licking, and at least two Queensland dogs have been recorded as addicts.

- INDEPENDENT