Cane toads are coming: pest makes way to Melbourne in pot plant

[herptrader]

Published On: 12-15-2009
Source: The Age (on line)

Cane toads are coming: pest makes way to Melbourne in pot plant
December 15, 2009 - 12:18PM
Kmart has sold 2500 Queensland palms like the one a cane toad hitched a ride in.

Kmart has sold 2500 Queensland palms like the one a cane toad hitched a ride in.

A Melbourne shopping centre has received a nasty early Christmas present with the discovery of a cane toad lurking in a pot plant.

The cane toad, one of northern Australia's biggest pests, is believed to have hitched a ride on one of 7000 assorted palm species delivered to Kmart stores from a Queensland wholesaler.

The toad was found by Kmart staff in a pot plant supplied to its store at Southland shopping centre last week.

The discovery sparked a biosecurity alert in Victoria but searches by Kmart staff and Victoria's Department of Primary Industries found no trace of other cane toads.

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[Rainbow-Serpent]

Mum always told me Kmart was overrated :evil:

 

[Jay84]

They wouldn't survive here though would they? I suppose they could party it up during summer....... But come winter they would freeze their asses!

 

[jamesf55]

to cold, they wont survive long so no need to worry, they dont spred any further south fast anymore, they have been at places like port maquarie for years, not common and south, hardly ever, most down south of there are usually hithc hikers. they seem to just be spreading west at the moment.

 

[Twin_Rivers]

Even victoria summers would be too dry i would imagine they wouldn't be able to spread like in wetter areas, and come winter the cold would wipe them out.

 

[Fuscus]

You don't get them in the mountains behind the gold coast and Victoria is much colder

 

[herptrader]

Global Warming??

 

[herptrader]

Actually they are pretty much comatose below about15C so we need a fair bit of global warming ;-)

 

[Cj3cooper]

i got a call from kmart in ballarat about a frog in a pot plant that turned out to be a cane toad. only a small one but yeah was a bit of a shock when they showed me lol

 

[JasonL]

I think quite a few toads find there way all around the country on a regular basis, most die out eventually I would think as they would need to end up in a suitable micro climate to have any chance, and to take off they would need to happen across another toad of opposite sex... it could happen in a few places, but the chances are slim...