Bloody Immigrants.
Well, actually, not quite. It could happen, though.
Today's Hun carries a story about a group petitioning for the import of...... bumblebees!
Yup.
Apparently, there is a school of thought that thinks that bumblebees would be good for pollinating crops, and therefore a Great Idea.
Okay, let's have a look at some of these other Great Ideas in Introducing New Species.
(note to lefties, this is not about European Man and his deleterious effect on the Indigenous Aboriginal)
Hmm. Off the top of my head, we have:
Cane toads
Indian mynahs
Rabbits
Foxes
Camels
Pigs
Horses
Cats
Prickly pear
Sparrows
European wasps
Mice
Rats
Fire ants
That's without thinking.
How about a littl bit of googling?
We can add deer, goats, feral bees, plague minnows, carp, water buffalo, black striped mussel, asian green mussel, northern pacific seastar, donkeys, starlings, rock doves (aka pigeons), rainbow trout, brown trout, crown of thorns starfish....
I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
For those not in Australia, generally, these introduced species range from bloody nuisance to outright menace on the desirable neighbour scale.
With the amount of money spent trying to control these vermin we could keep the hospitals in shape and still afford Chairman Bracks' advertising budget.
Perhaps the simpletons who came up with this bright idea of importing yet another foreign animal should stop smoking cane toads and start getting inventive about ways to increase pollination success. Blue banded bees, for example are native, and have also been shown to be of use in agriculture.
And they look good, too.
posted by Nilk @ 5:38 PM
7 Comments:
Maybe it's the fisherman in me, but I can't put trout in the same category as most of the pests you list. Donkeys? there are a few around but not really a pest. There are some wild ostriches in SA but not enough to worry about. Prickly Pear was probably the worst in many ways but it was defeated by the introduction of Cactoblastis cactorum not all introduced species are pests. Are ABC employees imported from central Europe or somewhere similiar, maybe they can find a control agent for them.
Yuove forgotten one of the things they did get right. Dung beetles, have a look at a 60's-70's news bradcast fom canberra.
The polies are trying to avoid eating flies and a cloud of the buggers hangs over their heads.
Apart fom that, not much else springs to mind.
the frollickingmole.
Don't worry Bill, the commies over at the ABC will have to fall inline pretty soon, the Howard Junta is 'stacking' the ABC board with some of those wretched conservatives.
As for animal imports, can we get some man eating lions and put them around our detention centres. Some of the protestors might figure out that, It is useless for the sheep [them] to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf [man-eating lions] remains of a different opinion.
LOL! I didn't know about the dung beetles, frollickingmole.
I like the idea of the lions, too, Matt. Maybe we can just plunder the Western Plains zoo and let them out.
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I think you're right that we should look for native alternatives first before we start looking for overseas imports. I've seen these bees in the wild - they look like flies, only they don't bug you. Stingless, and I seem to recall their honey actually has a higher energy content than european bee honey.
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