CALL in the meat ants. That鈥檚 the new proposal for dealing with the spread of toxic across tropical Australia. Rick Shine at the University of Sydney says the have been seen feeding on cane toadlets, and thinks laying down bait to attract them to ponds where toadlets congregate until the wet season may help control their spread.
To see if this would encourage the ants to feed on native frogs as well, Shine鈥檚 team housed them with cane toads and native species. They found native frogs leapt away quickly when bitten by a meat ant, leaving them less than 1 second to latch on. The slower cane toads, however, stuck around for more than 5 seconds. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e evolved in a world without big predatory ants, so instead of hopping away like a sensible frog, they just freeze,鈥� says Shine. 鈥淭hat makes sense if the predator is affected by your toxin, but these ants aren鈥檛.鈥�
Ecologist of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, says Shine鈥檚 work to assess the complete biology of cane toads will be instrumental in controlling the pests. He says the latest proposal is interesting, but that 鈥測ou would try it cautiously鈥�.
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