What do you know about invasive species?

Started by fencerider, May 26, 2017, 01:59:52 AM

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trdsf

Zebra mussels in Lake Erie.  They give the power companies on the lake shore fits because they pile all over intake pipes, but... there are now so many of them they filter the entire lake on the order of once a week.  For the first time in my life, Lake Erie is a (relatively) clear-water lake, not a muddy/sandy/silty lake.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Mike Cl

Quote from: SGOS on May 26, 2017, 11:28:12 AM
I think the pythons were illegally released by exuberant snake enthusiasts who got tired of their pets.  Weren't the rabbits a government disaster; I can't remember?  I don't know if the mongoose thing is working out or not.  I had a girlfriend who is a wildlife biologist and she use to attend various conferences.  She said the herpetology conferences were especially colorful with a lot of tattooed attendees wearing black leather. 

I'm not sure I'd want a python.  They're kind of cool and all, but mostly they just lie around in a sleepy daze.  If they get out of their enclosure, it can take a couple of days to find them in the house.  I like affectionate pets that come when you call them and do tricks.
I don't know if the mongoose worked or not.  I think there were brought in to control the rats and mice.  There were/are no snakes on the Islands, so they were not needed for that.  Anyway, on the islands they are everywhere; especially in the cane fields.

I would not consider any reptile or insect or spider as a pet.  Like you, I want my pets to come when I call and be warm and furry.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Gawdzilla Sama

There's some damn frog on The Big Island that is driving the locals nuts.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 26, 2017, 01:29:41 PM
There's some damn frog on The Big Island that is driving the locals nuts.
I wintered on the Big Island when I was boating.  I remember those frogs, although I thought they were birds until someone explained it to me.  They have a rather shrill whistle, rather than a croak, and they were kind of annoying.  I don't know if they do any damage or not.

Mermaid

Lots and lots of them. Native water plants around here are being choked out by purple loose strife. It's pretty so people imported it, and it liked it here. European Starlings are super successful invasive species.

Australia is a good study in invasive species. Mice, cats and rabbits have literally taken over the country. And cane toads. For a while, people kept introducing new species to solve problems, and ended up causing a ton more.
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

fencerider

#20
hmmm thats a yes on ferral pigs in some places. a yes on Lake Michigan. what about lionfish on the east coast? has anybody tried eatin lionfish?

I wonder if we sent Duck Dynasty to Big Island how long the frogs would last. They luv them frogs.

I heard kudzu spreads fast but I didnt hear about it being invasive. Is it edible? The people in the bush say you can eat milkweed as long as you rinse out the white sap first.
"Do you believe in god?", is not a proper English sentence. Unless you believe that, "Do you believe in apple?", is a proper English sentence.

Hydra009

Quote from: fencerider on May 26, 2017, 08:12:39 PMI heard kudzu spreads fast but I didnt hear about it being invasive. Is it edible?
The leaves, flowers, and roots are edible.  The vines are not.

I've heard of some particularly enterprising people make kudzu quiche, which imo is a culinary disaster akin to pineapple pizza.

Mike Cl

Quote from: fencerider on May 26, 2017, 08:12:39 PM
hmmm thats a yes on ferral pigs in some places. a yes on Lake Michigan. what about lionfish on the east coast? has anybody tried eatin lionfish?

I wonder if we sent Duck Dynasty to Big Island how long the frogs would last. They luv them frogs.

I heard kudzu spreads fast but I didnt hear about it being invasive. Is it edible? The people in the bush say you can eat milkweed as long as you rinse out the white sap first.
I left Alabama in 1959 and there was not a single kudzu plant.  I revisited in 1985 and it was every where--every fucking-where, as an Alabamian put it.   
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

SGOS

Quote from: fencerider on May 26, 2017, 08:12:39 PM
I heard kudzu spreads fast but I didnt hear about it being invasive.
It most certainly invades.  Hence, it is "invasive," and once it invades, it's damn near impossible  to get rid of.  It also kills practically everything else where it invades.  Perhaps the other commonly used classification, noxious, is more appropriate.  If it invaded my property, my response would be declare defeat.  I would pick up and leave the way farmers left Oklahoma, defeated and brokenhearted, during the dust bowls.

chill98

Interesting topic.  Spotted Knapweed has been mentioned and a bio-control has been introduced (well, several have been) with the most successful (in my region) being the weevil:

http://www.albanypinebush.org/conservation/biological-control-for-spotted-knapweed-found-in-the-pine-bush

There are several factors involved with a species becoming 'invasive'.  The knapweed is prolific *up to 100K seeds, long lived (plants living for 9 years has been documented), and it is a type of plant that produces a toxin in the soil that repeals most other plants (lupine not being affected).  The beetle in above link seems to offer the most hope for control of this plant, however, the American Goldfinch has been documented foraging the seeds.

There are other examples of bio-control with the Leafy spurge plant and its predator beetle that one can google if so inclined. 

Lessons hard learned with the introduction of a new pest to combat an existing pest, one could look to the Tachind flies:

"Many Tachinids are important natural enemies of major insect pests, and some species actually are used in biological pest control; for example, many species of Tachinid flies have been introduced into North America from their native lands as biocontrols to suppress populations of alien pests."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachinidae

Someone would need to do some searching because I am going from memory and may be mixing a couple of things up here.  I believe it was a type of Tachinid that was released to combat the gypsy moth, without extensive testing (like was done with the weevil above). The side effect is *something they released to fight the gypsy moth* is now raising hell with our native (mainly moth) populations because they did not test extensively with *whichever bio-control* for its taste for our native species.

The key factor, imo, is whether some existing species steps up and takes advantage of this introduced specie, like the goldfinch in this example.  Will the weevils/goldfinch exterminate the knapweed, NOPE, but they may offer enough 'control' to keep a field from becoming exclusively a meadow of knapweed.

Gawdzilla Sama

Nobody's mentioned the most invasive species on the planet yet?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

aitm

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on May 27, 2017, 08:00:47 AM
Nobody's mentioned the most invasive species on the planet yet?
Surely you jest...why that species has brought god to all living things...
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: aitm on May 27, 2017, 08:05:43 AM
Surely you jest...why that species has brought god to all living things...
You addressing me or Shirley?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

It would be cool to name a baby girl Surely, especially if your last name was Shirley, and I did know a family with that name.

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: SGOS on May 27, 2017, 10:32:55 AM
It would be cool to name a baby girl Surely, especially if your last name was Shirley, and I did know a family with that name.
I liked Surely Temple.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers