What you can do in your own backyard to help minimise the spread of cane toads

They're not pretty, they're poisonous, they're a pest and they're in more of our neighbourhoods than ever.

And now the recent, prolonged wet weather in large parts of northern Australia has created ideal breeding conditions for cane toads, with reports of thousands of toadlets blanketing roads and backyards.

Efforts to eradicate the pest species have proven increasingly fruitless, with Australia's cane toad population estimated to have passed 200 million.

So is there anything we can do to keep our own backyards free of toads? And what are the most humane methods of getting rid of those you find?

What can you do to make your yard less attractive to cane toads?

The NSW Department of Environment has some simple tips that can be implemented to help stop the spread of cane toads:

• Don't leave pet food around: Top of the list is making sure you don't leave your pets' food outside and uncovered, as that can attract toads.
• Remove water where you can: Toads need access to water every two days to rehydrate — and they also breed in it — so remove any unnecessary standing water that might have gathered in items around your yard.
• Clear up hiding spots: Rubbish and other debris can provide shelter for cane toads.
• Leave outside lights off: Avoid attracting the moths, and other insects, that toads eat.

University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience researcher and cane toad expert Rob Capon says "it's very hard to see a solution on the horizon for total eradication of toads in Australia".

"It's a bit like [trying to get rid of] rabbits and foxes; they're always going to be there," Professor Capon says.

"What you can do is make sure that they're not there in absolute plague proportions."

Targeting 'toadpoles'

If you have water around you where toad tadpoles breed, you are in a better position to make more of a lasting difference.

Professor Capon says one of the keys to sustaining lower populations is trapping and removing eggs and toad tadpoles from ecosystems.

"Tadpole trapping has its advantage, because it works at that vulnerable point in time when the female has laid the eggs and they have hatched but haven't left the water yet, so they're all in one location."

Over the past two decades, Professor Capon has led pioneering research into the development of a trapping technique that uses pheromones that won't attract frog tadpoles.

"It's cane toad specific … so you can actually let the trap do the work for you working out what is a frog tadpole and toad tadpole; one will swim in and the others won't."

The technology has since been patented and licensed to not-for-profit environmental organisation Watergum, and the traps are being used by various local councils and can also be purchased online and in stores, making them accessible for people in toad-prone areas who have bodies of water on their properties.

How can you kill toads without being cruel?

RSPCA Queensland principal scientist and veterinarian Mandy Paterson says despite being an invasive species, cane toads are recognised as animals under the state's Animal Care and Protection Act.

"We would never want anyone to be cruel to any animal, whether they're a cane toad or not," Dr Paterson says.

Although Dr Paterson says no techniques used to euthanase toads are "absolutely perfect", the two methods the RSPCA recommends as the most humane are stepped hypothermia and a cane toad spray available from most hardware stores.

Stepped hypothermia involves catching a toad and placing it in several plastic bags or a take-away container and placing it in the fridge for 10 to 12 hours.

"Because they're cold-blooded animals, the cool is almost like a sedative for them and sort of slows them right down; it's almost like an anaesthetic. Once they've been in the fridge for 12 hours, you put them, still in the plastic container, in the freezer for another 10 to 12 hours and then that kills them."

Dr Paterson says as a vet she would regularly see dogs and cats quite sick after mouthing cane toads.

"I think [people] are happy to get rid of them, and it's a good thing for the environment to get rid of them, but people have got to do it humanely."