The disgust and hatred that northerners feel for these warty little amphibians is palpable. Needless to say I wasn't the most popular person in the house this week, when one turned up in a backyard in Armidale. Fortunately for me, the fat lady is yet to sing and subsequent investigations have not revealed any more toads. So what's the deal with cane toads and should we be worried?

There is one piece of biology that is on our side when it comes to cane toad invasion. Unlike humans, cane toads reproduce using external fertilisation. The male toad urinates sperm onto the eggs of his lady while she is laying them in a puddle. This is extremely important to invasion potential because no single female toad can create a new population simply by laying eggs. A male must be present to fertilise them.

What this means is that no single toad can start a population. Unless our hitchhiker had a lover who stuck around to help make babies, we are safe, for now. What those babies look like, would be jet black tadpoles in a shallow pool or puddle. Cane toads can lay over 10,000 eggs at one time so stamping our hitchhikers before they start breeding is really important.

They are a huge environmental problem because they are toxic at all stages of life. When cane toads invade new areas in Australia, many native animals eat them and die. The toxins in the cane toad skin are so different to Australian frogs, that our native animals have no natural defence to it. Large declines have happened in northern Australia in quolls, goannas, snakes and other predators.

A population turned up in Sydney a few years ago and scientists and natural resource managers were able to get rid of it before it became too large to control.

We must be diligent in the New England Tablelands, so keep your eyes open for any toads in your garden. If you hold a torch up to your eyes and shine it around, their eye shine will reflect back at you, revealing their location.

Do your bit and let Local Land Services know if you find any more.