Cane toad tadpole lure to launch as toxic pests' breeding season heats up

A lure that attracts and traps cane toad tadpoles will be released commercially after the University of Queensland-designed product was licensed to not-for-profit environmental organisation Watergum.

Watergum's invasive species manager Emily Vincent said being able to trap tadpoles was a game changer in reducing the population of the toxic pests. 

"One of Watergum's main initiatives is to tackle invasive species because they're an extremely big threat in Australia ... [one] I'm sure everyone is aware of is cane toads," Ms Vincent said.

The lure is the result of work by the University of Queensland (UQ) Institute of Molecular Bioscience and the University of Sydney's Professor Rick Shine.

Its commercialisation has been over a decade in the making with Watergum among the hundreds of organisations to trial the lures.

Researchers discovered that tadpoles were able to detect cane toad eggs in the same body of water and seek them out and eat them. 

Researchers extracted toxin from dead toads that were donated by community members.(Supplied: The University of Queensland)