Well, then bring in Godzilla.

Demetrius: The hemlock population in the Blue Ridge here in Va. was decimated by beetles.

Sad

I'll donate my lone hemlock, was placed wrong some 30yrs. ago. I keep pruning, but not finding compliance. Your's for the taking. Every Spring the Robins build their nests and the local cats make them go away. I'm located in the NE.

Hopefully they have studied all the other organisms that this might effect. Introducing a foreign species is not a good idea for the ecosystem in a lot of cases. See: Cane Toads, Purple Loosestrife, Rabbits, etc...

Janesays: Introducing a foreign species is not a good idea for the ecosystem in a lot of cases. See: Cane Toads, Purple Loosestrife, Rabbits, etc...

kudzu

Sentenced to death for "refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state" and for "corrupting the youth."

/and btw, Plato is dickhead

And we'll bring in needle snakes to eat the Mothra.

And Gorillas to eay the needle snakes...

hemlock?

thats grimlock dude!

you got the joke!

Damn, I was JUST about to post Grimlock....

Hemlock the tree =/= hemlock the poison herb.

/tmyn

Hopefully they have studied all the other organisms that this might effect. Introducing a foreign species is not a good idea for the ecosystem in a lot of cases. See: Cane Toads, Purple Loosestrife, Rabbits, etc...

Humans are obsessed with orgasms.

I have just one word to say, Kudzu.

I don't know about the rest of you, but where I live, these beetles are a real problem. They have no natural predators in the US -- and overpopulate quickly. Every September I literally have thousands on the side of my house. They sneak into the house too. Most obnoxious bugs ever.

oooooo bye bye ecosystem

Like that will solve your problems, what a bunch dumb farks

Biv

I read that as organisms, and was planning on making a joke about misreading it as orgasms.

/hopeless

Hopefully they have studied all the other organisms that this might effect. Introducing a foreign species is not a good idea for the ecosystem in a lot of cases. See: Cane Toads, Purple Loose strife, Rabbits, etc...

Dude you failed to include Schwarzenegger, and walking catfish.

This can't end well:

Wasn't this already done years ago with those asian beetles that look like ladybugs? Then come to find out we can't control them now.

Thinkin' that's the ones that nevesis is talking about.
Those little farkers bite too.

AFAIK studies have shown that once these beetles finish eating the Adelgeids, they don't adapt to a new form of prey, but instead just keel over dead.

Oh, and www.lumpkincoalition.org

/shamelessplug

... The gorillas will die in the winter.

RandomExcess

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

That's the nice thing about beetles. There are so many species that it is likely that there is one or more that specializes in eating only whatever it is you want to control.

Purple loosestrife beetles, for example, are being used to control that exotic and invasive plant.

Yes, cause this worked so well with those damn lady bugs which now cram themselves into every nook and cranny every fall. And we still have lots of aphids in the spring.

Chris Knight: I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

Yeah, this will work great. Just like the rabbits in Australia and Nutria in Louisiana, and the brown snakes on the south pacific islands, and the mutated strain of disease used to kill the rabbits in Australia that ended up killing the koalas and wombats, and the.....
well you get the point

Please just stop, we've already farked things up enough

Ned Lamont should make this a part of his campaign

BTW, Historycock, you don't have to make up mutated diseases. It's the foxes imported to eat the rabbits that are eating the native Australian mammals.

We'll just bring in snakes to kill the beetles. Then eagles to get ride of the snakes. Then specially-trained gorillas to get rid of the eagles. We'll just get rid of the gorillas afterward by using bananas.

did anyone read the actual article? The news isn't that CT was given permission... they got permission back in 1995.

I'm glad to hear it. There are parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains that look like Hiroshima.

well, ask floridians what happened with the love bugs that are supposed to be eating the mosquitos here...

Every time I've ever read about introducing a new species to control a different invasive species that's running amok, they've mentioned the exhaustive testing they've done to make sure they don't make things worse. They've done this with the Purple Loosestrife-eating beetles, those badass Phorid flies that decapitate fire ants, and a Gypsy Moth-eating fungus that FINALLY stopped that moth from being a pest. I'd have to assume they've checked this beetle out before letting it in, though I'll defer to someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

In Northern Wisconsin, the Hemlocks are in trouble because of deer overpopulation -- they eat EVERY Hemlock seedling.

phaseolus, you forgot about the Asian Beetle ("Ladybug" lookalike) importation. Those were brought over back in the 80's to control aphids and I'm sure that everyone knows how well that turned out.

Little farking biting bugs are everywhere in the fall.

unavailable for comment.

This appeared in my mothman search. WTF, I say, W.T.F. (probably NSFW)

I do volunteer trail maintenance in Central Pennsylvania in the Tuscarora State Forest. Just a few years ago the Hemlocks Natural Area was bug free. In just about three years the wooly adgelid have killed almost all the mature trees. The whole area looks like it was nuked. Nothing but grey, dead, trees.

My friend is a Forester for Maryland State. He says those adgelid killing beetles are hard to raise and cost a buck a piece. That's why they haven't released billions of them to kill the adgelids. I'm afraid we're headed for a forest mono-culture. It seems like a lot of the trees that make an American forest American are dying out. The American chestnuts, the American Elm, the Hemlock. The all seem headed to extinction.

Biocontrol does not always go wrong, my doubting fellow Farkers.

Beetles don't turn into anything. Except dead beetles.

has anyone tried to figured out why there's so many of these adgelids killing trees?