Cane toads unable to resist disco lights

DARWIN - Cane toads could be disco lovers, easily lured towards ultraviolet lights.

Northern Territory researchers have achieved outstanding success using ultraviolet black lights - the same as those used in nightclubs - to lure and trap the pests.

"We've found that the old toads are definitely a disco animal," Frogwatch coordinator Graham Sawyer said.

As part of the Toad Buster project, the researchers caught more than 200 cane toads in three weeks at Ringwood Station, about 120km south of Darwin.

After using red and blue moving lights that failed to attract the amphibians, Mr Sawyer said they trialed dark UV lights that were an instant success.

"They certainly work well and the toads can't seem to resist," Mr Sawyer said.

Part of the attraction for toads to the UV lights are the mass of insects that swarm around the lights, Mr Sawyer said.

The lights were placed inside specially-designed cane toad trap doors that include one-way doors on the edges providing no escape for toads once they are inside.

Since January this year, Mr Sawyer said more than 1500 toads had been caught at the site.

"This shows that they are really starting to be a huge problem - obviously there's millions out there and they really have no predators," he said.

"We've shifted the traps around six locations at the same site and they have all been successful."

Mr Sawyer said he would use the findings to ask for more government funding to help wipe out the toads in northern Australia.

Frogwatch is a not-for-profit environmental organisation, focused on increasing the native frog population in the Northern Territory.

"Toads are the biggest threat to frogs and other animals."

- AAP