Love-sick female cane toads will be hopping to their deaths after Queensland researchers cracked an irresistible mating call.
Ben Muller, a PhD candidate at James Cook University, has created an audio trap using "toad tunes" specifically targeting females, which can lay up to 30,000 eggs at a time.
While male toads can be lured in by a wide variety of mating calls, females have been found to be pickier about which tune gets them in the mood.
The researchers experimented by remixing the calls from around Townsville to work out what the average toad sounded like.
It was then manipulated to sound more attractive for females.
"We changed the frequency, volume and pulse rate of the call because we know in other amphibian species if you do this, it makes the call more or less attractive."
Loud, low frequency tones with a high pulse rate was found to be the most successful, with 91 per cent of females trapped found to be reproductive.
Toad tunes to be available to public
The researchers are now working with a commercial pest control company to develop off-the-shelf 'audio traps' that could be used by councils across the country.
"That's the ultimate goal, there's still a little bit more research go with that but it should happen very shortly," Mr Muller said.
On toad-free Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the tunes are being trialled to keep the island that way.
The "tune traps" have been laid near the island's freight terminals to capture any possibly stowaways.
With billions of toads living across northern Australia, the traps are unlikely to prove viable as an eradication tool, but the traps could prove a valuable weapon at a local level.
"As a control strategy, limiting numbers, suppressing numbers it is definitely an option," Mr Muller said.
