GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto, Ontario) 06 September 05 Pacific Rim in Brief Toads lured to their deaths by love for disco lights
Sydney, Australia (Reuters): Sydney Poisonous and ugly, Australia's cane toads are also suckers for
nightlife. Researchers looking for ways to eradicate the toxic toads, introduced from Hawaii in 1935 and now an environmental menace, have found a way to trap them using ultraviolet "disco" lights.
Cane toads, some as big as dinner plates, can even kill crocodiles and wild dogs with their hallucinogenic venom, and residents of Queensland state and the Northern Territory have resorted to golf clubs and cricket bats to kill them. Now researchers say traps armed with ultraviolet lights seem to attract the toads, probably because of the swarms of insects drawn by the light.
"We've found that the old toads are definitely a disco animal," said Graham Sawyer of Australia's Frogwatch "Toad Buster" project.
He said 200 toads were caught in a three-week project using disco lights.