2008). However, meat ants do not provide a panacea for toad control. For example, they kill only the metamorphs, and are unlikely to be effective during wet-season recruitment events (when ants are less active, and the metamorph toads disperse from their natal waterbodies immediately: Child et al. 2008). Also, although intuition suggests that increased mortality of toads would reduce toad abundance, metamorph mortality rates may have little impact on toad recruitment because of density dependence in mortality schedules (e.g. Alford et al. 1995; Crossland et al. http://www.selleckchem.com/products/gsk126.html 2008; Pizzatto & Shine 2008; Bowcock, Brown & Shine 2009; Crossland, Alford & Shine 2009). Recruitment might even be increased by higher pre-recruitment mortality (Wilbur 1976; Millner & Whiting 1996). Field studies could evaluate whether or not elevating metamorph mortality rates affects total recruitment. Increased ant densities might provide food for adult toads (Bailey 1976), but diurnal meat ants are unlikely to be eaten by nocturnal adult toads. Many attempts at biocontrol have inflicted collateral damage to native fauna (Snyder & Hise 1999); the cane toad itself is a good example (Low 1999). In the present case, however, the predator involved is already present (our only manipulation was to redirect foraging ants to an area virtually lacking other species except cane toads). Collateral impacts of ant-baiting appear to be minor, but further work is needed. For example, reduced densities of ants in unbaited areas may influence the fauna; or increased ant densities by the water’s edge may modify the behaviour of other species. Meat ants belong to the dominant dolichodorine group, which can competitively exclude ecologically similar ant species (Andersen 1990, 2003; Andersen & Patel 1994; Gibb & Hochuli 2003) and affect seed dispersal (Gibb & Hochuli 2003). Other habitats may contain diurnally active native taxa that would be affected by increases in ant density. Such issues warrant attention prior to implementing any toad-control methods based on increasing ant numbers. Ants are well-suited for pest control (Agarwal, Rastogi & Raju 2007; Abera-Kalibata, Gold & Van Driesche 2008; Peng & Christian 2008), because they are capable of high offtake rates (food is stored in the nest, so individual foragers do not satiate even after killing many prey) and the intensities and locations of ant foraging effort are easily manipulated (Risch & Carroll 1982). To build up ant densities, baiting may be supplemented with other management tactics such as planting trees (worker ants feed upon secretions from homopterans and larval lepidopterans: Eastwood & Fraser 1999), deploying synthetic pheromones, and/or adding nest boxes.