BUSINESSES THAT HELP SOUTH FLORIDA’S RESIDENTS DEAL WITH THE INVASION OF A DANGEROUS SPECIES
Several obvious features distinguish Burmese pythons from the equally invasive, highly successful cane toads (Rhinella marina), also known as bufo, giant, or marine toads, now emerging in seemingly larger numbers than ever following a summer of favorably wet conditions.
For example, one’s a reptile and one’s an amphibian. One can reach an astounding 20 feet in length, and one can reach an equally astounding 1 foot in length, which happened in July on Marco Island, where a wildlife removal company captured (and euthanized) a massive 12-inch cane toad. Typically, they range in size from about 4 to 9 inches, depending on sex — males are larger — or maturity.
One originates in Asia in its native Burma and the other, the toad, hails from the Amazon basin in South America to as far north as Mexico and the southernmost portions of Texas.
Unfortunately, they also have a couple of similarities in Florida. Unchecked by natural predators, both are spreading rapidly across the southern part of the peninsula from east to west, eating the food sources of native reptiles and amphibians or eating those natives themselves, the experts note.
Both can and will kill your pets, especially your dogs. Although pythons will eat any dogs they kill, they rarely kill them because they tend not to live near pets. However, cane toads are much more likely to kill a dog, although they have no interest in it as food, probably for a very simple reason — they can’t fit dogs in their mouths, unlike pythons. “They basically eat anything they can fit in their mouths,” says Seth Brattain, a wildlife biologist who opened his Naples based business, SlethReptiles Animal & Wildlife Removal, almost 12 years ago. He’s the one who found the huge cane toad on Marco. Even that one couldn’t fit a dog in its mouth.
Cane toads seem to be proliferating unstoppably, and they thrive in wet conditions around people — a lot of rainfall, full or overflowing canals, ponds, or even big puddles in neighborhoods, bright lights at night, and food sources such as cat food or dog food left outside, along with dog feces, the experts say.
“Since 2017,” adds Brattain, “I’ve noticed a huge influx from Marco Island to Cape Coral along the coast and out (east) to Immokalee.” And he’s not the only one. “They’re not going away,” says Jeannine Tilford, whose company, Toad Busters, based in Martin County, removes or reduces them in property dominated by homes and neighborhoods from Key West to Vero Beach and along the southwest coast, as well as in Tampa. “They’re creatures of habit and environment. All of us were creating little canals where everybody wants to live, but that’s their preferred environment, too. It’s easy for them to reproduce there. They like all the lights (which attract insects), so they hang around garages and homes. We do have a lot of South American tropical plants, which is their natural habitat, and they’re attracted to dog poop because there are often beetles on it.”
When they reproduce, they do so in large numbers, with an extremely high survivability rate for the 20,000 or so eggs a female can lay, adds Brattain. One significant problem with this is the highly toxic secretions they deliver from sacs on their shoulders that often prove quickly fatal to dogs who tangle with cane toads.
In neighborhoods or on properties infested by cane toads, dogs more than cats are likely to attack them, whether in play or real aggression. When that happens, if a dog bites a toad or gets even a little of the toxic secretion on its tongue, its life is in danger, the experts warn.
Both Toad Busters and SlethReptiles offer a variety of defenses and solutions, including monthly removal services and special fencing — other companies do as well — and Tilford’s company now offers an emergency first aid kit for people with pets living in the vicinity of cane toads. “There’s a video link, all the instructions and an in-depth explanation of how to use the kit — how to treat your dog if it’s bitten a cane toad,” Tilford said.
The kit includes activated charcoal. If the dog has not begun a seizure or slipped into unconsciousness and can be made to lick or ingest the charcoal, it will bind with any toxin and prevent it from getting into the dog’s system.
“There are steps you take that can save the dog’s life,” she said. “First, immediately wipe out the dog’s mouth with a damp or wet paper towels or rags. That will get out as much toxin as possible. Don’t re-wipe with the same rag or towel. Try to get the dog to lick or swallow charcoal, but if you can’t, don’t spend time.
“Most importantly,” she added, “get hold of your emergency vet. Already know where to go in an emergency. Have the number on the refrigerator or someplace. The amount of time it takes to get there, that matters. Not having to scroll through your phone to find it will help.”
The cane toad problem is not provincial or parochial. Tilford and her boyfriend, Fabio Takakuwa, will be traveling to Australia soon to help with a cane toad problem there, and they’re doing the same thing in Hawaii and a couple of Caribbean locations. But the predominant work is here.
“The largest numbers I see here are between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach,” she said, “but they’re moving up the state and beyond. We’ve had calls from Jacksonville and Alabama. They’ve made it to Orlando.”
For residents destroying cane toads themselves, it’s important not to mistake the native southern toad for a cane toad, Brattain said. The southern toad only reaches a size of about 3 inches, and he describes it as “a tan or light brown with little circle markings on it.” The cane toad, on the other hand, is significantly bigger when it’s mature. “The females are a golden-yellow-green in color, and the males’ backs are completely black with green spots.” On its shoulders are two small glands that secrete a chalky-looking substance.
Where cane toads exist, they now exist in greater numbers than the native toads. “In one night, one house and property, we can collect from just one to as many as 50 of them,” Brattain said. “On golf courses, you can get 300 to 400 a night, and I was told that Bonita Bay, in one night, removed more than 1,500 from their golf course.”
