Cane Toad

[Crock Pot]

I am very jellous when I read about all the marvelous game and pest animals the USA members have to enjoy.  I have not ever seen a squirrell.  Where I come from the only game animal I can hunt with my airgun is the Cane Toad.  To me they look like living pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken. They are absoloutly no challenge and shooting one is like rolling a potato into the yard and shooting it.  BUT - The Cane Toad (introduced) is a major threat to the Green Tree frog (native) and many other animals. They are a terrible pest and are destroying so many of our native animals  and so i feel some satisfaction wheneverI roll one.    

 I have tried to include a photo but as I am new to this whole forum idea i wil see how i go.

Rob

[3n00n]

Used to get cane toads in south Florida by the dozens, starting at midnightthen, finishing at daylightwith fresh fried eggs and legs, with pancakes soaked in cane syrup. Great funfollowed by agreat breakfast.

[Crock Pot]

Are they a pest in Florida? I set up a light in the back yard and when they come to eat the bugs i roll them.

[gamo2hammerli]

Must be easy for any pellet to penetrate their skin.....no feathers or fur to block the way.  he he  And boy, they do look ugly.....the green one looks cute.

[3n00n]

The hide is tough enough, that during the harvest, any large onesleft on cane to be fleshed by the crusher would cause the machine to hang up. They didn't pay the youth to hunt, but would supply breakfast fixings to go with the fried legs.

`

They'd have 20 to 50 teens there every harvestweekend, collecting breakfast. The best night I recall having, I got 38lbs of preparedlegs from 56 toads. That was the first time my little brother went, and although he onlygot a few {plus gigging my boot}we stillhad plenty enoughtoeat.

`

Sort of like havinglarge, sweet 'buffalo wings'with breakfast, after gigging and spearfishing forhalf the night.

[gamo2hammerli]

Wow, I didn't think their skin would be so tough.....   Time to bring out the Predators, Destroyers, Rockets and Tomahawks etc......

[3n00n]

Of course, we are also talking about 5+lb critters, with legs the size of a medium fryer.

[Crock Pot]

I had no idea you could really eat them!  I thought they were poisonous.  They have killed dogs in our area who tried to eat them.  Is it only on the back where the poison gland is?  is the legs the only bit you can eat? and do you have to skin it first?  Bit interested. I find they have a good nervous system and a good headshot is necessary to stop em cold.

[hiroller]

Them toads bring back lots of memories.  When I was stationed in Guam we used to shoot them with a 1377.  The place is infested with them and they're all over the place, especially after a heavy rain at dusk.  We'd sit out in a friend's backyard porch and watch them all come out of the woodwork.  It was fun shooting them directly up front and watching them do backflips.  10 pumps from the 1377 always did the job with domes.  It sucked once the sun came up though because many of the streets would start to stench from all the toads that got flattened by cars after a rain.  I've never heard of anyone eating these guys but I'm sure you can eat the legs if you really wanted to.  The poison comes out of the 2 large humps on their backs.  If you grab one and lightly squeeze on one of the humps, you'll see white fluid start seeping out.  That's the part that usually gets domestic animals when they try to attack/play with these things.

[Crock Pot]

It must just be those poison sacks on the back that are dangerous.  I have seen crows roll them on their back to eat them.  I take it the 1377 is an air pistol?  As it is in Australia for me to get an air  pistol I would have to get a licence the same as if I was bying a .44 Mag and then could only be able to shoot it at a rifle range.  Even for my Gamo 440 I have to have a full firearms licence to own and yet my bow which I regularly shoot wild pigs and even a full sized bull buffalo (the largest animal in Australia) i need no licence.  Australia is a great place just some funny laws and no squirrels, i would love to hunt a squirrel i think i will have to come to the USA.

[TCups]

CrockPot:

Maybe I can trap a few breeding pair for you to introduce into the wild down under.  Probably have all the squirrels you'd ever need in a season or two.  Of course, my offer is void where prohibited by law (LOL).  What is the biggest cane frog you've shot?  It might make an interesting trophy, stuffed and mounted.

[Crock Pot]

1 kilo is a really big one here.  I would like to get one of those big bore airguns as there are heaps of big wild pigs here.  I will swap some pigs for squirrels.

[TCups]

J 3n00n is your man, if you are thinking big bore.  And he is always willing to work out a trade.  

Regarding frogs, you skin 'em by making a very shallow transverse slit just barely through the skin, low on the back, around the thighs (do toads have thighs?) and low across the belly, right at the "crotch.  Then you grab the upper body and with a pair of pliers, strip the skin down off the legs in one piece.  Cut the skin off with the feet and disarticulate the legs at the thigh.  You don't have to (and don't want to) cut into the abdominal cavity if you can avoid it -- messy.   I surely don't know about eating toads, but the true frogs here in the southern USA are very good eating indeed.  You can even order them in  the better restaurants.  Grill em with a little garlic butter.  Yummy.  They are prolific around every farm pond in the late spring and summer (along with snakes), but the frog season is restricted and I think there is a limit on taking them here in the states.  Some like to hunt them with bow and arrow with a cord tied to the arrow and a "gig" tip on the end of the arrow.

[3n00n]

The smaller ones are a couple of pounds, and the bigger ones are strong enough to pull a canoe over if you allow one to get in the water, then gounderneath the canoe,after the gig was set.

`

I always preferedwalkingedges ofcanals, because swimming in the swamp at night just didn't appeal to me.

`

Cane fields are huge and the snakes, frogs or toads are everywhere. Sugar cane feedsa lot of critters, but the problem just had to do with these toads hanging on to the cane while the machine was drawing stalks in.

`

That, I'm sure,is why they had youth doing the dirty work, because for us back then, it was more fun than Pong orAtari . . .

[leftcoast1]

No cane toads in my neck of the woods but this was all citrus 100 years ago. Bufo toads everywhere though. Biggest maybe 1/2 pound average is less than 1/4 pound. Both my dogs have grabbed them and dropped them because of the taste of the poision. My male learned after the second time my female is dumber than a box of rocks and had to pull her off of one she cornered last night. Bufo's are a pest as well just not at the level of the cane toad.