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Invasive Species
July 15, 2015 at 11:22 pm
(This post was last modified: July 15, 2015 at 11:23 pm by IATIA.)
It would seem that we just cannot learn from history. Carrizo cane is out of control along the Texas border and all efforts to eradicate it have failed miserably. So let us bring in some french wasps that like the cane. What could go wrong?
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RE: Invasive Species
July 15, 2015 at 11:53 pm
Nothing could go wrong!
We did the same to eradicate a certain beetle from our crops.
We introduced the "fucking cane toad"
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RE: Invasive Species
July 17, 2015 at 4:02 pm
There's a good chance these newly introduced french wasps have no natural predators and can run rampid... yeah, they might take care of the cane problem but what else will they feed on.. Other plants, beneficial insects? Without a natural predator, they can thrive...
Every now and then the USDA will destroy one of my incoming shipments from oversea of unrooted cuttings. If they see the slightest sign or symptom that something is/could be in the plants.... Gone....
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RE: Invasive Species
July 17, 2015 at 5:16 pm
If what they say in the article is true:
"As it happens, Arundo won’t lay eggs in anything but carrizo."
Then there will be limits on what the Arundo wasp can do to damage the environment. They can only be in areas with the invasive carrizo cane. If they were able to completely destroy the carrizo (which is doubtful), then they would die out, assuming that the article has it right about the laying of the eggs.
Of course, that still does not tell us what affect they would have on things in the areas where the carrizo cane is.
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RE: Invasive Species
July 17, 2015 at 6:04 pm
They will never kill off all the carrizo, just keep under control or at least that is the theory. Some of the initial issues would be what impact will that have on local wildlife that is utilizing carrizo for shelter and foraging. The wasps will also have no natural predators, so if they mutate and start on other vegetation it will be difficult to control them.
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Invasive Species
July 17, 2015 at 6:09 pm
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2015 at 6:12 pm by IATIA.)
(July 15, 2015 at 11:53 pm)ignoramus Wrote: Nothing could go wrong!
We did the same to eradicate a certain beetle from our crops.
We introduced the "fucking cane toad"
So let us use poisonous snakes to kill off the poisonous toads. And not just poisonous snakes, but one of the most venomous snakes.
The Black Mamba, a snake native to northern Africa is among the most venomous, fastest and aggressive in the world with a bite that can kill a human in 13 minutes.
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Invasive Species
July 17, 2015 at 7:22 pm
Humans are the most invasive species. Just saying...
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero