CAIRNS cane toads, your day of reckoning has arrived.

Across Cairns, an army of residents is expected to start a mass cane toad collection on Saturday night as part of the inaugural "Toad Day Out". 

Organisers want residents to collect as many toads as possible on Saturday night and take them alive to a Trinity Park collection centre on Sunday morning.

Co-organiser Lisa Ahrens said the aim was to loosen the toads' hold on the Far Northern environment.

"The toads will be weighed and measured for possible prizes," Ms Ahrens told The Cairns Post.

"The idea is that they will be disposed of humanely by refrigeration and then freezing.

"We are trying to reduce the number of cane toads in our environment. People have said 'it is too big a problem' but we think someone needs to take the first step."

About $500 worth of prizes will be on offer, with rewards for the largest and the heaviest toads, while Cairns Frog Hospital is offering $50 for any toad larger than 15cm. Only toads bigger than 50mm will be accepted.

Ms Ahrens said the dead toads would be given to taxidermists or processed and turned into fertiliser at the council's Bedminster facility.

"Cane toads are apparently an excellent fertiliser for cane farmers, which is something of an irony," she said.

Toad days also will be held in other northern centres, including Ingham, Charters Towers, Townsville and the Burdekin.

Collectors are warned to wear gloves and mosquito repellent when collecting and to put their live toads in a cardboard box.

The toads can be dropped off at Smithfield Village Estate, Trinity Park, between 9am and noon on Sunday.

For more information, email lisaa@satterley.com.au or telephone 4055 6023.

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