Invasive species

[Twig]

Just in time for Halloween:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... introduced

[wolf560]

Hello Twig..!!

A thought provoking article to be sure....

We can sow chaos with a keystroke in an investment bank, one signal to a Predator drone, a seed dislodged from the sole of a boot, a fish tank emptied into a canal. But when asked to repair the mess we've made, we proclaim our impotence.

I am by no means defending humanity's actions over the past several hundred years.
Kudzu is a variety of leafy vine that was introduced to America in the 1940's for only one decade to control soil erosion. It is spreading like the veritable plague here and nothing can actually stop it.

I saw a show last night on the Discovery channel about how the Pacific Islands were inhabited by animals and plant life over the past 50,000 years. Cyclones picking up animals and sweeping them across the ocean.... sea birds carrying seeds and nesting material aloft... and coconuts floating across the ocean for months at a time.

A part of me says that the ecological disasters are bad, but a part of me says "ok".
Some things (like our kudzu plants now) are simply beyond our ability to stop.
Some things (like the monster mouse) could be controlled with a coordinated effort.
Some things (like the European mink) will have to be isolated and saved somehow.

Perhaps in the larger scheme of things.... over the next 10,000 years... our impact will end up being the "inevitable one" that Nature built into her schedule of change to begin with.

[Huathe]

Here in the Eastern United States we have the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. A tiny aphidlike insect that infects hemlocks in huge numbers. So much that the hemlocks are under a possible threat of extinction. I have seen beautiful 300- 500 year old hemlocks in the Great Smoky Mountains succumb to this pest in only 4 years. Biological control has been tried but thus far has been unsuccessful. Systemic pesticides do better but must be reapplied every three to five years and is not practical for huge forested areas. Those trees are said to be on " life support " until and if a better solution is found.

James

[wolf560]

Hey James,

We battled for almost a decade against the "bagworm".
http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/factsheets/insectfactsheets/html/bagworm.html

They literally ATE my bushes and very nearly killed them outright.
We had juniper and leyland cypress bushes, 4-8 feet tall.

We had to pick them out of my by hand, and this occupied every weekend.

[Twig]

Then there is the bedbug infestation in New York City. I don't know if it's considered an invasive species, but one has to wonder whether or not human beings can be considered an invasive species...