Invasion in Australia

Breitbart reported yesterday that the Australian Army has been called out to fight an invasion. The invaders were invited to Australia in the 1930's, but they've more than overstayed their welcome.

Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians.

State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads.

The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest -- beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts.

But the toads now number in the millions and are spreading westward through the Northern Territory, upsetting the country's ecosystem in their wake.

This should be a lesson to always know who your houseguests are before you invite them to stay. But there's more. The cane toads' numbers aren't the worst of it.

Cane toads have poisonous sacs on the back of their heads full of a venom so powerful it can kill crocodiles, snakes or other predators in minutes.

I'm not quite sure I understand how the cane toads use their venom. Do they wait until the crocodile walks above them, and then the toad jumps up and hits its head against the underside of the croc? Or do the toads just rub their heads against their attackers? Or do the toads only apply their venom to whatever predator happens to eat them, leaving the predator dead for having the nerve to eat the toad?

Let's hope the Australians are better at stopping amphibian invasions than the French are.