05-28-2013, 07:27 AM
I just posted elsewhere that I had recently spoken with J.B. Friday of UH. I am pretty sure that he said he thought the scale insect had not been released yet. That seemed strange since I also remember seeing that the go ahead for release had been given back in November of 2011. They were gong to release them in the Ola'a forest reserve. Funny, you would think he would know. However I have just spent the last hour searching online for references to the actual release and have found none yet. That doesn't mean it hasn't been released but since most of what most of us claim to know comes from the internet it is significant. I have a phone message and an email in to DR Friday. My experience with him is that he is very conscientious and will research the answer and get back to me.
It has often been stated that those supporting such bio-controls are in it for some form of profit or job security. I find this laughable. In the same paragraph those making the suggestion immediately suggest letting various local groups "solve" the problem by pursuing their favorite hobby, for example letting hunters solve the problem of invasive deer. Yeah, right. It was (some) hunters who brought the deer.
I find the arguments that the deer and the guava represent food sources to be an insult to our collective intelligence. Vastly more food could be had without the massive fruit fly infestations that untold tons of rotting guava support. If you research what farmers can do to combat fruit flies the first thing is to clean up any fallen fruits and vegetables. Ha, ha! Joke's on the farmers! They are surrounded by thousands of acres of impenetrable guava forest that no one is ever going to get through while the guava lives. Nor is anyone going in there to harvest the vast majority of the fruit. If a human does try to penetrate such a thicket they find themselves a few feet off the ground suspended half way between the fruit still on the tree and the fruit that has fallen on the ground, rotting. All the while they are inhaling fruit flies. Well, THAT'S some protein at least. Anyway 99% of this wonderful food source goes uneaten. If it were really about food the hunters and gatherers should steal directly from the farmers and leave out the pigs, deer, and guava. Even with such losses the farmers would probably still come out ahead. Either way someone eats for free at the farmer's expense.
In those parts of the world where wood is a valuable commodity such that people are motivated to go into the forest and work hard, the result is usually the same. Deforestation. I do not advocate encouraging the general public to go into the forest with chain saws.
There seem to be two camps here, those that side with the trained biologists and those that side with Syd "Save the Coqui" Singer. I'm going to let everyone guess where I place my faith.
It has often been stated that those supporting such bio-controls are in it for some form of profit or job security. I find this laughable. In the same paragraph those making the suggestion immediately suggest letting various local groups "solve" the problem by pursuing their favorite hobby, for example letting hunters solve the problem of invasive deer. Yeah, right. It was (some) hunters who brought the deer.
I find the arguments that the deer and the guava represent food sources to be an insult to our collective intelligence. Vastly more food could be had without the massive fruit fly infestations that untold tons of rotting guava support. If you research what farmers can do to combat fruit flies the first thing is to clean up any fallen fruits and vegetables. Ha, ha! Joke's on the farmers! They are surrounded by thousands of acres of impenetrable guava forest that no one is ever going to get through while the guava lives. Nor is anyone going in there to harvest the vast majority of the fruit. If a human does try to penetrate such a thicket they find themselves a few feet off the ground suspended half way between the fruit still on the tree and the fruit that has fallen on the ground, rotting. All the while they are inhaling fruit flies. Well, THAT'S some protein at least. Anyway 99% of this wonderful food source goes uneaten. If it were really about food the hunters and gatherers should steal directly from the farmers and leave out the pigs, deer, and guava. Even with such losses the farmers would probably still come out ahead. Either way someone eats for free at the farmer's expense.
In those parts of the world where wood is a valuable commodity such that people are motivated to go into the forest and work hard, the result is usually the same. Deforestation. I do not advocate encouraging the general public to go into the forest with chain saws.
There seem to be two camps here, those that side with the trained biologists and those that side with Syd "Save the Coqui" Singer. I'm going to let everyone guess where I place my faith.