A mass culling of venomous cane toads has reportedly taken place before the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! stars arrive at camp.
The ITV jungle show returns to screens on November 16, and as final preparations are made, the Australian jungle was invaded by at least 38,000 poisonous amphibians.
An insider told The Mirror: “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.”
Touching them could make the celebrities poorly and even land them in the hospital.
The environmental group Watergum has been busy killing the toads, which can also be a risk to other animals.
Numbers are up drastically on last year, when just under 5,000 of the creatures were culled.
A Watergum spokesperson told the outlet: “The cane toad population has completely exploded in Australia because they are 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.”
This year’s lineup is said to include the likes of Ruby Wax, Kelly Brook, Lisa Riley, Shona McGarty, Alex Scott, and Jack Osbourne.
The famous faces could come across a whole variety of creepy crawlies during their time Down Under, including 14 species of snake.