Posts: 485
Threads: 49
Joined: Dec 2006
Interesting...
Pesky Fire Ants Becoming Zombies that Die
http://www.usnews.com/mobile/articles_mo...index.html
...especially the "and then their heads fall off and they die" part.
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
A pleasant slideshow:
http://www.thejoymovie.com
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Posts: 255
Threads: 7
Joined: May 2006
its pretty much the same thing as in this video, where A parasitic wasp has injected her eggs into a caterpillar...
Think Nettle caterpillars!!! OMG BIG ISLAND ZOMBIES!!! [
]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMG-LWyNcAs&feature=fvst
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Posts: 138
Threads: 8
Joined: Apr 2007
Have to be careful when introducing non indigenous species into an area to control a problem, we see what happened for instance when the mongoose was brought to Hawaii. I'm sure there are many other instances, but you get my point.
BTW Big_Island poretty awesome you tube, yech!
Posts: 473
Threads: 19
Joined: Jan 2009
I read this the other day too. Was not sure how to feel about it. Seems kind of cruel even for ants. I had visions of these things mutating from ants to other species... even humans. I agree with the non-indigenous statement above despite the fact that the ants (the story I read was about Texas) we non-indigenous to the area too.
-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/
Posts: 388
Threads: 22
Joined: Jan 2009
Sounds cool, but I wouldn't want one flying up my nose or into my ear while I was asleep.
Posts: 72
Threads: 5
Joined: Jan 2006
Yes, I agree and hope they consider the "mongoose" mistake. They're testing a beetle on the Strawberry Guava trees right now in hopes they'll kill them off...wonder what else they'll kill off.
This article gives me a great big chill up my spine. I wish they'd quit "fooling with Mother Nature"...she can be one tough you know what :-)
Peace - Anna
Posts: 236
Threads: 51
Joined: Jul 2006
I've been an ecologist for more than 20 years and I've always been fascinated by the checks and balances in nature. For every parasite, there's another parasite that controls population numbers. So it's gratifying to read this article about a species that's specialized to include fire ants in their life cycle.
One statement in this article that also caught my attention is this one:
Plowes said fire ants are "very aware" of these tiny flies, and it only takes a few to cause the ants to modify their behavior.
True science won't express absolutes until the underlying hypotheses are proven. This is true about the concept that animals, ALL animals, feel pain or can change their behavior based on learned responses. I've recently read an article where the author concludes that fish feel pain. This article portrayed the conclusion as a significant finding, but you need not be a ecologist to understand that animals that do not adopt to their world are destined to evolve out of the gene pool, including fire ants.
Aloha pumehana,
Brian and Mary
Lynnwood, WA\Discovery Harbour
Aloha pumehana,
Brian and Mary
Lynnwood, WA\Discovery Harbour
Posts: 5,640
Threads: 101
Joined: Dec 2008
From:
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/topics/biocontr...trol.shtml
Safety of Biocontrol
There is a natural tendency to confuse disastrous introductions of the past with contemporary biocontrol efforts. The introduction of mongooses to Hawaii in the 1800s by a private landowner, for example, is not at all representative of the modern practice of biocontrol--it occurred without the extensive scientific and regulatory reviews that are central to today's biocontrol programs.
For an organism to even be considered a potential biocontrol agent today, it must first be proven to be highly host-specific, meaning it affects only a single host species or a very narrow range of species. For this reason, an animal like the mongoose, which preys on a wide variety of species, would never be used as a biocontrol agent.
Before a proposed agent is considered for release, it is subjected to rigorous laboratory and field studies in both its native range and the area in which it is invasive. These studies establish the agent's suitability for biocontrol by demonstrating that it is effective against the target invasive and poses no threat to other plants in the area.
Posts: 262
Threads: 23
Joined: May 2006
I agree with you, Paul.
The rigorous testing which is done to find a host specific biocontrol can't be compared to the careless release of the mongoose by sugar planters.
And - they've been doing it since the 1950's here on Hawai'i with some successes and no ill effects. Success generally means the number of plants were reduced because growth or reproduction was slowed.
You know, in Brazil, where the strawberry guava is a native tree, this insect is also native. It's just one of the many insects that eat or otherwise impact the plant there. These two species have developed a relationship over a very long time.
The trees in Brazil still thrive and people use the fruit and wood. Just in Brazil, they are another tree in the forest, not the prolific pest they have become here without anything to slow them down.
I've spent a fair amount of time trying to get rid of s.guava myself and I can say it's darned hard work. I think it's a serious threat to our native forests and I support the release of the biocontrol scale as one important tool to help slow it down.
As for the Zombie ants...well nature really is stranger than science fiction sometimes.
Uluhe Design
Native Landscape Design
uluhedesign@yahoo.com
Posts: 2,481
Threads: 10
Joined: Feb 2008
I agree with Paul and Mitzi. It is so discouraging to hear people rant about the mongoose when they are clearly ignorant of how much they themselves have benefited from the last several decades of successful bio-control. Further evidence of their distorted viewpoint is when they go on to say that this feral bug-eaten seedy fruit is a valuable food source, as though the fact that farmers can't get a decent harvest of many highly valued fruit and garden crops due to fruit fly infestation counts for nothing. The only way to manage the fruit flies is to clean up all the produce that has dropped. That of course is useless when there is an entire forest of invasive guava dropping fruit nearby. The scale insect targeting the guava is a sure winner in my book and we desperately need it
