Alien Invaders

[ShadowHM]

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?

[Rhydderch Hael]

A strange snakelike creature burrowed itself into the back of my pet cat's head. Now it demands me to worship him as a god. Which isn't much of a difference from before, but now this time he's offering some rather gaudy home decorating tips as well.

Sorry, Schrodinger, but I'm not slapping pre-formed plastic hieroglyphs on the walls, and those pillar torches simply have to go! :angry:

[Griselda]

Morning Glory! This particular variety of morning glory will grow just about anywhere around here, and is almost impossible to fight. We had some at our old house, and it would swallow the entire backyard in less than a season if left unchecked. It spreads via underground runners, so you have to dig down 10 feet or more to take the plant out by hand, and even then if you miss a little bit, it will come back.

I don't like to use pesticides, but I will admit that I have used them on the morning glory in the past. Most of the time, though, I would just pull the shoots up by hand, knowing that I was making the problem worse by leaving the runners underground. I would have to take it off of our raspberries constantly, or they would be pulled completely down to the ground by the morning glory, even though the raspberries were staked. Raspberries are already pretty thirsty plants when they're blooming, too, so the morning glory didn't help.

We even had some come up through a crack in the cement in our greenhouse. It is a persistent little plant. Luckily in this house we don't have much, if any, of it, although we do have wild blackberries trying to invade. I don't think the blackberries are alien, though.

Another alien invader is Scotch Broom. Scotch Broom has taken over a lot of the wild open spaces around here, particularly towards the coast. Every year, there is more and more scotch broom around, and fewer other kinds of plants. They are pretty, but they are killing everything in their path.

[Doc]

We are starting to have a severe problem with ferrets. Cute, cuddly, loveable little ferrets. They are illegal here. People buy them. Illegally. Kids buy them. Illegally. And when mom and dad tell kids "NO!" since you can't exactly turn an illegal animal over to the pound and since the pickup truck you bought it from is now long gone, idiot locals sort of just let them go.

Ferrets, in turn, do what they do. Invade chicken coops. Invade homes. They disrupt the local songbird nests, and have put several local species into endangered status. They spread disease like wildfire, and have been the cause of several rabies scares. Rabies, no matter the animal, is never funny.

And cats. No, not kitties, cute fluffy housecats. Big kitties. People round these parts have somehow taken to getting panthers and other big preditory animals when they are cute and cuddly and little. There is quite a market from what I understand. When they stop being little, they let them go. This is BAD, as you get a super preditor that is not afraid of humans and see people as a potential source of getting a meal... Or in the case of a 2 year old girl that was killed a few weeks ago, being a meal. The Carolina Panthers football team is an indirect cause of this... Idiot wives buy their idiot husbands a "Real Carolina Panther™" and these ignorant morons actually think they can keep these beasts as house pets. And being the ignorant trailer dwelling troglodyte dumbasses they are, when kitty gets to big, they throw it out of the house never once thinking of what it will do to the outside world.

Sadly, I have had to kill some of these magnificent beasts.

[jahcs]

Eurasian Watermilfoil or just 'milfoil.'

Milfoil info

Citrus Longhorned Beetle. A newer pest with big possibilities for damage.

WSDA info page

[Kevin]

Asian Lady Beetles. They are a swarmer and more aggressive than the native lady bugs. They are a problem for the local vineyards (and Missouri has more than many people think) and they are also a problem for homeowners. They've pretty much wiped out the native species down here now as well and unlike the native species these buggers will bite you. They are not a danger but more of an annoyance.

[ShadowHM]

unlike the native species these buggers will bite you.  They are not a danger but more of an annoyance.
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ARGH

We have those too. When they first appeared, I didn't believe the children when they claimed to have been bitten by a ladybug, until, of course, one bit me too.

When they die, the corpses blow in drifts by the rocks at our favourite swimming hole, and the rotting corpses don't smell wonderful either.

[TaMeOlta]

Phew ! For a second I thought I had been discovered :whistling: carry on then ! :P


Rhydd , that snake-like creature is my cousin Fred , take care of him well , offer him the occasional soul and he will remain semi-harmless ... except when he molts of course ! :whistling:

[aaa]

A strange snakelike creature burrowed itself into the back of my pet cat's head. Now it demands me to worship him as a god.

Does your cat now, for some odd unexplained reason, speak in perfect english?

[whyBish]

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.

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.

Sheep
Cattle
Goats
Deer
Pigs
Chickens
Cats
Dogs
Rats
Stoats
Ferrets
Possums
Rabbits
Sparrows

Wasps (Germanic and Asian)
Argentine ants
White tussock moth
Certain species of mosquito known to be vectors for Ross River Virus
Varroa mites (Which harm honey bees, which I believe are also imported, but we also have native bees, which are not (industrially at least) honey producers)
(Not clear on many of the insects)

Pretty much every plant in every household garden (Many natives don't flower)

Pretty much every crop plant (all fruit, most (if not all) vegetables)

Most industrial plants (E.G. Pine trees)

Most structural / decorative plants (e.g. willows on riverbanks, cabbage trees, gorse originally used as cheap hedges)

Multiple Aquatic species including algal blooms,crustaceans and shellfish, and various water plants.

Carp
Trout

Various micro-life (viruses and bacteria), mostly associated with other imported hosts
(e.g. mixamatosis(sp?) in rabbits, tuberculosis, various fruit crop blights)

The aliens pretty much outnumber the natives. And we've only been here (NZ) in large numbers for 150 years.

[Baajikiil]

I loved playing with these guys when I was a young child. They were everywhere. Apparently they are a very serious alien problem though.

Gypsy Caterpillers

[Rhydderch Hael]

Does your cat now, for some odd unexplained reason, speak in perfect english?
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... Rhydd , that snake-like creature is my cousin Fred , take care of him well , offer him the occasional soul and he will remain semi-harmless ... except when he molts of course !  :whistling:
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All hail the Supreme System Lord— Fred? :mellow:

Yes, the cat now speaks perfect English. It goes without saying. Actually, that's not true. He does go while saying, "Now clean out my litterbox, servant, or I shall kill you myself!"

Schrodinger popped out of his box today and said, "For your continued and loyal service as my First Prime, I grant you this gift. It is a mere toy, but enjoy it as a blessing from your god."

Yep. It is a toy. Rather unappealing Lego-like thing that doesn't do anything except crawl all over the wall like a bug. Stupid thing's eating into the furniture, too. I can't give it back to Schrodinger without getting my brain fried, so I'm stuck with it.

Looks expensive, though, and I'm wondering where my cat's been getting the money to buy these things. I have some cause for worry that he may be charging these on my credit card, because Schrodinger seems to have gotten more than one...

...just had a talk with the cat. He says he hasn't purchased any more. Funny, that. I guess these things appear to be replicat—

—oh, crap.

[Roland]

I loved playing with these guys when I was a young child.  They were everywhere.  Apparently they are a very serious alien problem though.

Gypsy Caterpillers
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Heh, and to think my state started it all. :P I never much liked the things anyway. Oh sure, they were fun to watch crawl around, but we were all told as kids how bad they were for the trees, so I personally didn't like them much. Funny how I had almostly completed forgotten about them until now... Summer will be here soon. Will have to keep an eye out for the buggers, although my trees rarely have any insect issues. My yard is another story entirely (damn grubs).