I'm A Celebrity thrown into chaos as camp invaded by thousands of toxic toads

A massive extermination of venomous jungle invaders has been carried out ahead of I'm A Celebrity's launch. Environmental specialists have slaughtered an enormous 38,000 deadly cane toads in the vicinity where the ITV programme is recorded. The amphibians present a serious danger to the incoming campmates, who are expected to feature comedian Ruby Wax, reality personality Jack Osbourne, and model-actress Kelly Brook. The brown-hued cane toads discharge dangerous milky white poison via glands situated behind their eyes when sensing danger. Should any jungle celebrities come into contact with this substance before touching their mouth or eyes, it could trigger sickness, retching and potentially require hospital treatment.

An insider revealed: "The celebrities are always given a strict talk about what wildlife to avoid when they are in the camp but it is quite easy to brush past one of these toads and get slime on your hands or people might think they are cute frogs and try to stroke them."

The venom can prove fatal to birds, dogs and cats. Their exploding population represents one of Australia's most pressing concerns, as the toads breed prolifically, with numbers reaching 200 million across the country.

The township of Murwillumbah in New South Wales, where I'm A Celebrity - scheduled to begin on Sunday, November 16 - is overrun with the creatures.

In an effort to manage their constantly expanding population in the area, an environmental organisation called Watergum launched a 'Toad Bust' campaign where they urged residents to catch the creatures before putting them down humanely. Last year they caught and killed 4,684.

However, this year, as the numbers expand even further, they managed to eliminate a whopping 38,322.

A spokesperson for Watergum revealed: "The cane toad population has completely exploded in Australia because they are an invasive species with no natural predators. They are toxic at every life stage and poison Australian native wildlife like birds, quolls and native frogs, causing declines and local extinctions. They have a voracious appetite and they can lay up to 35,000 eggs at a time."

Cane toads were brought to Australia back in 1935 in a bid to tackle the plague of cane beetles.

However, the experiment failed spectacularly and instead the cane toad numbers soared with wildlife authorities battling to keep populations in check.