Beating the Toad

It’s hardly news that scientists in Australia are trying to find new ways to eradicate – or at least reduce the population of – the infamous cane toad, but a new report released this week indicates that there may be an organic solution that does NOT involve introducing any additional invasive species into delicate ecosystems. For those not familiar with the situation, the cane toad is a large amphibian that secretes a hallucinogenic toxin, does nothing whatsoever to control the cane beetle that is native to Australia, and has been blamed for massive declines in the population of several already endangered indigenous creatures. It’s one of the worst examples of an invasive species being introduced into an unprepared ecosystem you can find, even in Australia, which is unfortunately known for such things. But now it seems as though there may be an answer as nearby as the pet food section of the supermarket…

According to as story from Reuters Online, scientists working on the cane toad problem have discovered that a species of ant native to Australia is apparently immune to the toads’ toxin. All you have to do is arrange for a large population of these ants to move into an area where baby toads are hatching and developing – say, by leaving an open can of cat food near a pond where the toads reproduce – and the ants will do the rest. It’s a remarkably simple (and relatively inexpensive) answer to a problem that has been plaguing the continent since the toads were mistakenly introduced in 1935. Certainly much cheaper than using pesticides or trying to find some biological agent that is lethal to toads but harmless to humans, not to mention safer; it also avoids the problem with the creation of unintentional folk songs…

Most of us have encountered some variation of the song in which a cat is used to catch a rat, then a dog is used to catch the cat, and so on; “There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly” is one of the common American versions. It’s an excellent example of an escalation effect, in that using the same method that has failed repeatedly in the past continues to fail until the entire system collapses (the Old Woman dies at the end of the song, for example). Plans for the elimination of invasive species often involve introducing some form of predator of the target species into the same environment, but these plans generally come to nothing either because there is no available predator for the target species, or more often, because the predators will cause even worse damage to the environment than the invasive species you’re targeting – necessitating the introduction of yet another species to control the controlling predators…

Obviously, I call this to your attention not because you or I have any interest in exotic invasive species control (this is a business blog), but rather because this same syndrome occurs all too often in business. It’s common to see people trying to undo damage caused by a measure that they introduced to avoid damage caused by another measure; it’s even more common to see people continuing to spend money on purchases that are a complete waste when they should just have written off the original purchase and started over. You can’t always count on repurposing the purchase or finding someone else to sell it to – which is to say, you can’t count on finding a native ant species handy that will eat your invasive toads – but continuing to throw good resources down the rat hole is bad strategy, bad planning, and ultimately bad business…

It’s probably also worth noting that the people who make cat food in Australia probably never considered the idea that it might one day be sold as a simple biological measure for combating the cane toad – but I would be very surprised if they don’t start marketing that application for their product very soon. Which means that this story can also serve as a lesson about finding new applications for your product – but that’s a post for another day…