DAILY TELEGRAPH (Sydney, Australia) 15 April 05 Cane toad fertiliser: coming soon (Karen Michelmore)
Australians could soon be spreading mulched up cane toads on their gardens as fertiliser.
As controversy continues over the best way to kill a toad, Darwin is now grappling with the future prospect of thousands of toad carcasses.
A front line of thousands of cane toads is now just 40 km from Darwin, having ravaged the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park, and residents led by FrogWatch are preparing to lay traps and kill the critters any way they can.
Federal Country Liberal Party MP David Tollner this week made national and international headlines by suggesting children should bludgeon the toxic toads with cricket bats and golf clubs.
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell weighed in, saying he shot the pests with an air-rifle as a child.
And Federal Conservation Minister Ian MacDonald today admitted using the creatures for soccer practice when he was growing up in toad-ravaged Queensland.
"I used to play a bit of soccer as a kid and I always thought my soccer game improved when the toads really hit town," Senator MacDonald said.
" ... (But) even though they are a horrible animal, you do need to deal with them humanely, and I think the idea of freezing them is probably the best way."
FrogWatch today received another weapon in its fight, with the federal government committing $40,000 to buy 30 or 40 supertraps, that can collect hundreds of toads in a week.
But FrogWatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer said the community-based organisation was now considering what to do with the thousands of toad carcasses as the war is waged.
Mr Sawyer said Frogwatch was researching turning the toad into liquid garden fertiliser – Toad Juice – which would be sold to homes around Australia.
"(Some toadbusters) have been burying the dead toads around their plants and they've been finding that the plants responded really well," he said.
"... they've been finding that their bananas and pawpaws are the best they've ever grown."
Mr Sawyer said one fertiliser operator had already signalled his interest in mulching the toads.
It came as Senator Campbell called on states around Australia to hop on board the cane toad fight, saying it was a serious threat to the entire nation.
"We've got research that will show that cane toads can actually get all the way down to Margaret River in Western Australia, they can get down into South Australia," Senator Campbell said.
He said there appeared a "huge disconnect" between Queensland and the NT, and the rest of Australia.
"Down in the southern states having some ministers talking about eradicating cane toads seems a little bit bizarre and odd," he said.
"We ask people who read the newspapers ... please understand the passion that people feel about this.
"This is a huge threat to a pristine environment and a huge threat to the economy of the territory and to WA, and tourism in Australia broadly, and we are serious about solving it."
Cane toad fertiliser: coming soon