The same pesticide that is blamed for declining honey bee populations in North American and Europe is being fingered as the culprit behind a dramatic plunge in the number of frogs on the Queensland coast.

"The first domino in the sequence is chemicals," says Deborah Pergolotti of the Cairns Frog Safe project, specifically blaming neonicotinoids.  This insecticide attacks the nervous system of bugs, but has been restricted for use in Europe because of fears it is causing the mass die-off of bees, which are needed to pollinate crops.  Without them, people don't eat.  It's that simple.

But Ms. Pergolotti has noticed a general decline in the frog population - not to mention an increase in frogs with extra limbs, missing eyes, cancer, stunted growth, and skeletal problems.  She told the UK's Guardian Newspaper by that her observations, it started around 1996 - right about the time that neonicotinoids started being used in Australia.

The problem is, Pergolotti runs a frog hospital, and not a major testing laboratory.  And she's had a difficult time trying to get universities and government interested in the declining frog population.  "If somebody would get around to doing the toxicology for it, then maybe we might get some proof, but nobody's interested in the toxicology," she says.

And there's the vicious cycle:  Without new research pointing to neonicotinoids killing frogs, scientists and the government aren't interested in studying the matter any further.