TERRITORY cane toads have found a deadly enemy of an unlikely source - cat food and native meat ants.
The killer insects have already slaughtered millions of toads in the Adelaide River floodplain - about 60km east of Darwin - as part of a scientific experiment, Northern Territory News reports.
The ground-breaking finding is now hoped to contribute to the feral toad's extinction.
University of Sydney school of biological science Professor Rick Shine said the toads were poorly-equipped to stand a fight against the small insects.
He said cane toads did not try to avoid meat ants at great speed, unlike their native counterparts, including frogs and other toad species.
"If we understand the vulnerability of the cane toad we can develop a number of combined tactics to combat this deadly invader," he said.
Prof Shine and his colleagues Georgia Ward-Fear and Greg Brown used cat food to lure the native meat ants closer to young cane toads during the study in last year's dry season.
The team found ant densities and toad mortalities increased "more than fourfold" with the addition of the food baits.
"We can look at an interaction that's already happening, meat ants are already killing millions of cane toads," Prof Shine said.
"We're just looking to make it a bit easier for them (with the bait)."
The research, funded by the Australian Research Council, was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology this month.
It found the killer ants were a low threat to native wildlife and the technique was inexpensive.
The research strengthened evidence found during a study conducted by the team in March last year.
It is hoped the technology will be part of a multi-pronged attack on cane toads.
"No single control will be a silver bullet to eradicate the cane toad from the Australian landscape," Prof Shine said.
"But if we understand the biology of cane toads and their interactions with Australian fauna we'll be in a much better position to control them."
