It’s time for the annual bufo/cane toad post! I cannot lie, it’s my favorite.
It is a serious topic though, as nonnative, invasive cane toads (aka bufo toads, although this name seems to be going out of style) can do serious damage to our beloved pets, as much as kill them. They also devour everything in their paths: the native and the necessary.
March through September is cane toad breeding season which means they are not only more active than usual but they’re also proliferating.
Dr. Steve Johnson from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is the Godfather of these pests. He knows it all. So click this link and watch the videos to learn how to identify invasive cane toads, how to humanely euthanize them, and even how to treat your dog if they get a hold of one (thankfully we now have Westlake Veterinary Urgent Care across the street!)
Chances are, if you see a shockingly large toad in your yard, it’s a cane toad. I’ve caught many toads in my Westlake yard over the years and not a one of them have been native southern toads. (However, to be safe, if it’s less than 1.5 inches, let it go, as per Dr. Steve.)
Well, speaking of catching cane toads, this strategy has worked for me since the summer of 2019: after dark, I put a headlamp on, go out looking for the shine of cane toad eyes, approach stealthily with the headlamp light on them and catch them with a plastic zip-top bagged hand! I seal the bag and look around for that easy cane toad identifier: the shield-shape at the top front of their heads , boxed in red in all of the images in this post, which tells me this cane toad is ready to go to war with my pets (both native and cane toads have glands so I don’t like to use those)!
Once I’ve confirmed it’s a cane toad, I put the plastic-bagged toad in a disposable plastic container, refrigerate for a few hours and then freeze till garbage pick-up day. This is apparently the humane way to euthanize these pests. Dr. Steve, at 3:15, also outlines another way of humanely euthanizing these toads with benzocaine in his video here.
Just a note, something about the light on them makes them freeze/halt so that they’re easy to catch. I’ve never been sprayed with poison. And maybe one really big guy struggled in my hand. Otherwise they’re pretty lackadaisical about being hunted and caught.
Walking the neighborhoods at night there are some houses that seem to be infested with these toads. Mine is not one of them.
IMPORTANT: it is “unlawful” to release or relocate an invasive cane toad! So say if, after having a few White Claws™ on the 4th of July, your nieces dare you to catch that big toad and you actually do it, just make sure you are ready to humanely euthanize it.
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