It's time now to start paying extra attention to your pets when they're outside.

That's because Cane Toad season is here now through November.

The hotter and hotter time of the year is when we see the toad population grow.

But experts say pets can get in trouble with these invasive species even when it's well outside of breeding season.

As the sun goes down.

Bryson Farrell's work day is just beginning.

He's searching for the secret cozy spots that cane toads call home.

These hedges are like condominiums for him.

Farrell works for Toad Busters, a company hired by homeowners worried about invasive sugar cane toads.

With these big ones.

The glands are just.

I mean, that's all toxin.

The toads are nocturnal.

They are often easy to miss.

Mulch can serve as a great camouflage for their trips.

They'll go as light as they need to or as dark as they need to.

And to blend in.

Farrell says the toads are not aggressive.

Poison in their skin glands are self-defense.

He was agitated from the get go.

He immediately started secreting out poison from his glands on either side.

Cane toads are poisonous to most animals.

Janine Tilford is founder of Toad Busters.

So basically a dog can just actually put their nose on the the toad and the toxin can be excreted out of the glands, and then they'll immediately, within a few minutes, start succumbing to the toxin.

They start vomiting, they will salivate, their eyes dilate, and then eventually go into a seizure.

So small dogs are affected really quick.

It could be a matter of under five minutes that they could be in that seizure and then starting to go into cardiac arrest.

Tammy Yost of Fort Myers hired the company to protect her dogs, Ruby and Ranger, because they love to hunt.

Fits.

They're they're going to go after it, and then I'm not going to have a chance.

The company put up this additional fence to help keep toads out of her yard.

We have an awful lot around the house, especially out front.

And they're just so bold.

They won't even, like, move out of your way.

I had one in the garage, and I had to, like, you know, sweep to chase the thing out.

They just look like I'm not when I don't really care.

Cane toads are native to Central and South America, and were brought to Florida as insect control for sugar cane fields, until Ford says the warming climate has allowed them to multiply.

Florida in itself is a great location for all these animals to to do well here.

So we have a lot of new invasives that are coming in and the toads, because the weather and the plants that we put in our yard are generally from South America.

The toads are at home.

This is a very good climate for them to do well.

Along with many other invasive species, species like the New Guinea flatworm and animal these crews plan to target next also pose a risk.

Yo says she's just glad she's able to better protect her dogs from the toads.

They're a good part of my life, and they're really good for my mom and their family.

And you want to take your family and protect them as best as you can.

She like bugs?

Yeah, you might put.

Well.

Burmese pythons and cane toads are among the most recognized invasive species in southwest Florida.

They are far from the only unwanted presence.

There are dozens of plants and flowers that can take up a lot of the nutrients and beauty from native Florida.

Doctor Jerry Jackson is the host of What the Wild Things, and he is joining us now to talk about some of the lesser known species causing chaos in our backyards.

Welcome, Doctor Jackson.

It's great to be here.

We're excited to have you.

I'm excited to be here and excited to talk about exotic, invasive.

Exotic means it's not native.

It's from somewhere else.

And invasive means that it's growing out of control and spreading out of control.

So why has Southwest Florida become such a hotbed for these invasive plants?

It's because of the climate we have here.

We have a subtropical, almost tropical climate, and things can survive here and do survive from all around the world.

So for 25 years, you've been doing with the wild things here.

You.

It airs at 7:28 a.m. and you have so many fans.

We love listening to it.

I know you did a segment recently on the rosary, so you brought those with you.

I know they're very toxic.

What do you want people to know about them?

Well, first of all, I brought three different species of exotic, invasive plants.

These are the exotic invasive rosary peas, and they're called rosary peas because they used to be used as the beads on rosaries.

And missionaries probably spread a lot of these around because of that.

Not only that, but some people apparently died as a result of making rosaries out of these rose rupees because these are highly toxic.

They have the ability to kill a human.

I know you brought two other species of plants that you wanted to show us real quick.

Okay.

This is the leaf.

This is one leaf of a Queensland umbrella tree.

It's a plant that is native to Australia, Queensland, Australia.

It's a plant that in Australia, it is also invasive.

Why is it invasive?

Because it produces flowers on a stem like this.

That's very long.

And it produces a radiation of several stems out at the tip of a branch.

So they're sticking upwards maybe two feet upwards.

And it produces flowers all along.

Each of those little stems and seeds grow along each of those little stems.

There's another one that we have that is also invasive.

These are the leaves and they are compound leaves again.

So the leaf starts here and goes out there.

These are the leaves of Brazilian pepper.

And I'm holding it by the stem.

Because the leaves of Brazilian pepper are like poison ivy.

You can get a rash from them.

In the early 1800s Christmas decorations became very very popular.

And people were looking for Holly.

They wanted Holly with the nice red berries that you see in the in the winter time.

And holly trees were lost.

They were cut down everywhere for their berries, and they began to run low.

And someone went to South America, and they found a plant that also produced red berries at Christmas time.

And they brought it back, and they called it the Brazilian harbor holly.

And it wasn't a holly at all.

It is a relative of poison ivy.

And they began growing them on farms and selling them.

And people who handle them began to get rashes.

And all of a sudden they realized that, hey, this stuff is toxic, we can't do this anymore.

And those people had to go out of business.

Oh, wow.

Oh, that were selling them.

And so they just let the plants grow and left them alone.

A Brazilian pepper is, on a very, very aggressive, invasive, exotic species.

And.

Yep, we got them growing in our yard, too.

Doctor Jerry Jackson, we thank you so much for your time.

And we love your work on With the Wild Things.

And we'll will keep listening.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.