TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN (Australia) 26 March 08 Join Townsville Frog Lady for Toad Hour (Daniel Bateman)
Roslyn and Terry O'Keefe don't hate cane toads ... they just happen to prefer frogs.
While scientists and authorities continued to flesh out a solution to Australia's ever-growing toad problem, the O'Keefes were practising toad control the best way they know – by hand.
The couple, who had been operating the Balgal Beach Holiday Units for the past five years, estimated they had manually removed `hundreds of thousands' of toads from their property.
Every night the pair went out with a torch and hunted the feral amphibians, on average collecting about 30 toads a night.
The captured toads were sprayed with Dettol and disposed of humanely ... and in their absence, the native wildlife started to flourish.
"We've seen a huge difference in the local frog populations," Mrs O'Keefe said.
"We don't have many toads breeding here now, so we've been getting species here like the white-lipped giant tree frog.
"They sit on the patio of one of the units.
"The international guests and locals love it."
The O'Keefes were asking North Queenslanders to join them this Saturday from 8pm to 9pm to participate in `Toad Hour' – an effort to reduce the number of cane toads.
The Toad Hour would coincide with Earth Hour, where people were encouraged to turn lights off for one hour to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote global warming awareness.
"We hope that more people use Earth Hour as an hour to not only care for the environment by turning off their lights, but spend the hour eradicating toads," Mrs O'Keefe said.
"If everyone did it, that one hour a night, imagine how many million less toads we would have?"
While the O'Keefes' efforts had succeeded in removing hefty amounts of the troublesome toads, last month's heavy rainfall brought a flood of the pests back to the area. These toads were not yet matured, and were only about 2.5cm long, however the O'Keefes were out every night collecting the `toadlings' to keep numbers down.
Before the Easter long weekend, the O'Keefes were removing up to 80 toads a night.
"It's been getting down to going out and finding no toads whatsoever," Mrs O'Keefe said.
"Only in the last month or so, because of the rain, they have come back."
While the units were located at one of the more picturesque of the northern beaches, Mrs O'Keefe said they wanted the area's native frogs to be more of an attraction for visitors.
"They're starting to call me the Frog Lady," she said.
"We sell T-shirts with frogs on them. We got an email from a German who stayed here and bought a shirt, and took photos of himself wearing the shirt all around the world.
"The beach is a beach, but what makes this area unique is all its frogs."
AUS Press: Join Townsville Frog Lady for Toad Hour