02-22-2005, 07:01 PM
I just read an article in this month's National Geographic magazine about the many kinds of alien invaders that have spread around our world. Many are innocuous; many are not.
It came as quite a surprise to me to learn that Burmese pythons are living and breeding in Florida, for example. :blink: I will be asking my currently wilderness camping mother about that one.
But it did get me wondering, given the international membership here, just what alien invaders you have to deal with, and just how much they affect you.
The two alien invaders that affect me the most are Zebra Mussels and Purple Loosestrife.
Zebra Mussels are small but numerous. They grow in colonies in shallow water. They only got to the Great Lakes in the 1980's and they changed cottage life forever. The first time we built a crib dock, we created the crib from cedar logs and merrily tossed in the rocks from the old dock until we had used them up and were able to dismantle that old dock and start using the new one. But later additions were fraught with danger. Zebra mussel shells are razor sharp. Leather gloves are nasty to wear in the water, but definitely preferable to sliced hands. (Of course, each of us had to get sliced once apiece before we learned.)
Water shoes are now essential if you wish to wade in the bay, as the zebra mussels now coat every pebble and clam shell, and even a sandy beach still has a few of those scattered on it. (Some of the cachet of skinny dipping goes away when you have to wear shoes to do it.)
We are lucky - we get our water from a well. Others, who draw water from the bay, have had to resort to various and sundry devices to prevent the zebra mussels from clogging the intake pipes.
Purple Loosestrife has been called the Beautiful Killer. It is indeed a beautiful plant. The problem is that it displaces indiginous plants and thus disrupts the food web (none of the local critters eat it). The area where I cottage is a fragile environment, and, to my dismay, I have seen the fens (alkaline wetlands) increasingly taken over by purple loosestrife.
So, those are my two top 'least favourite' aliens. But I know that other creatures afflict other places. For example, I read that muskrats are a scourge in northern Europe, even though they fit in just fine here, where they are natives. I know that DocDouglass keeps a flamethrower handy to take on the kudzu vines. So what aliens afflict you? And how?
It came as quite a surprise to me to learn that Burmese pythons are living and breeding in Florida, for example. :blink: I will be asking my currently wilderness camping mother about that one.
But it did get me wondering, given the international membership here, just what alien invaders you have to deal with, and just how much they affect you.
The two alien invaders that affect me the most are Zebra Mussels and Purple Loosestrife.
Zebra Mussels are small but numerous. They grow in colonies in shallow water. They only got to the Great Lakes in the 1980's and they changed cottage life forever. The first time we built a crib dock, we created the crib from cedar logs and merrily tossed in the rocks from the old dock until we had used them up and were able to dismantle that old dock and start using the new one. But later additions were fraught with danger. Zebra mussel shells are razor sharp. Leather gloves are nasty to wear in the water, but definitely preferable to sliced hands. (Of course, each of us had to get sliced once apiece before we learned.)
Water shoes are now essential if you wish to wade in the bay, as the zebra mussels now coat every pebble and clam shell, and even a sandy beach still has a few of those scattered on it. (Some of the cachet of skinny dipping goes away when you have to wear shoes to do it.)
We are lucky - we get our water from a well. Others, who draw water from the bay, have had to resort to various and sundry devices to prevent the zebra mussels from clogging the intake pipes.
Purple Loosestrife has been called the Beautiful Killer. It is indeed a beautiful plant. The problem is that it displaces indiginous plants and thus disrupts the food web (none of the local critters eat it). The area where I cottage is a fragile environment, and, to my dismay, I have seen the fens (alkaline wetlands) increasingly taken over by purple loosestrife.
So, those are my two top 'least favourite' aliens. But I know that other creatures afflict other places. For example, I read that muskrats are a scourge in northern Europe, even though they fit in just fine here, where they are natives. I know that DocDouglass keeps a flamethrower handy to take on the kudzu vines. So what aliens afflict you? And how?
And you may call it righteousness
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake