Efforts to stop the march of cane toads into Western Australia have failed, forcing experts into defence rather than offense.
So says a review of the state government's approach to the creatures, worrying animal lovers, farmers and environmentalists alike.
Cane toads are famous in Australia for all the wrong reasons.
Introduced in 1935 to help control beetles destroying sugar cane crops in northern Queensland, the toads took to the area with gusto, spreading across most of Queensland and into neighbouring states and territories.
The amphibians are now a million-dollar problem, with Western Australia becoming the latest victim of the invasion.
Adding to that, a recent review by the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife has come up empty-handed, finding none of the proposed or previously implemented strategies has had any effect on toad populations.
Program leader for the state cane toad initiative, Corrine Everitt, says it's another blow in the fight against the resilient animals.
"(The) unfortunate reality is that there isn't anything available at the moment to control cane toads. It is disappointing that there is no one-stop-shop for managing cane toads, that's the reality, and I'm sure there's more than just me who feels this way. And we have to now look to new research ideas to try and at least mitigate their impact on native species."
CEO of the Invasive Species Council, Andrew Cox, says the federal response to the issue of alien species has been inadequate.
He thinks a drastic overhaul is needed.
"The best defences for stopping them arriving is our quarantine system and how we look for, survey and prepare for new invaders, and we don't think those preparations are up to scratch. The recent invasions that we're seeing, the arrivals of new species on a regular basis shows that we're not intercepting them well enough."
Like other invasive species, cane toads have a devastating impact on the ecology and wildlife of a region.
Native Australian animals such as snakes and goannas have been particularly hard hit, dying soon after ingesting the poisonous creatures.
The toads are also remarkably resourceful, hitching rides on trucks and ending up in suburban areas.
Even without the help of humans, they have a fearsome migration rate of up to 50 kilometres per year.
President of the Kimberley Toadbusters, Lee Scott Virtue, says the problem is out of control.
"There is absolutely no way we will stop the toad's inevitable invasion of the whole of Australia, they are moving so dramatically. They are adjusting to all sorts of environmental conditions so it is anticipated, certainly by our researchers, that they will get through the Pilbara and eventually down to the southwest, one way or another.
She is scathing of the West Australian government's review of its attempts at toad control.
"Some of the conclusions that they've come to are just utterly ridiculous. I think the state government have just decided not to throw money directly at the problem, and they've been playing around with yet another sniffer dog, and one dog over the whole of Western Australia is just crazy. Introducing an app program, that's fabulous but it doesn't work anywhere in the Kimberley other than in towns itself. To come to the conclusion that they need to put all their efforts into looking after a few of the islands off the West Australian coast, off the Kimberley coast, anticipating that they will be cane toad-free is just crazy."
The cane toad will be part of the focus of a new Senate inquiry into invasive species management.
The inquiry will release its recommendations in December.
Head of the Invasive Species Council, Andrew Cox, says an inquiry is crucial in order to protect Australia's ecosystem, as well as prevent costly future biosecurity breaches.
"Weeds can take over large areas and transform woodlands, for example, into grasslands. Diseases can kill animals such as the citrus fungus which has made extinct many frog species in Australia. They can be devastating, from annihilating species to just replacing small areas, so there's an enormous cost to the community and landowners, and there's a massive cost to the natural environment."
With authorities running out of ideas, for now the cane toad is free to continue its course to nationwide domination.
Corinne Everitt says the West Australian government will keep focusing on lessening the impact of the toads.
"The government's focus is on making sure that we eradicate satellite populations which are ahead of the frontlines. We do have some interesting research that we are working with the University of Sydney on, in terms of using pheromones to mitigate the breeding success of cane toads. I guess some of the other exciting work that we're looking at is mitigating the impact of cane toads on those species. Looking at training goannas not to eat toads, and we're going to be looking at using some strategies that have been developed in the Northern Territory to try and teach quolls not to eat toads too."
But Kimberley Toadbusters' Lee Scott Virtue believes the state government is ignoring the significant impact people power could have on the situation.
"I think the government needs to be focusing a lot more on involving community. When they were working with community, and funding the community and we talk about funding fuel costs to get indigenous communities out there, up and trained. It's getting kids at risk out there on the landscape also working on toads, they love that kind of activity, but it all costs money. They need to be putting funding into the community groups like the Kimberley Toadbusters because that's the Kimberley community, essentially taking as many toads out of the system as they possibly can."
