So
if you’ve been reading this column for any length of
time you probably have heard me make some sage
comments such as …”don’t mess with Mother Nature.”
This isn’t original material by any stretch of the
imagination, but it sums up my feeling that we don’t
know what can happen if we do something that might
prove to be difficult to undo.
Case in point, some states have a continuing problem
with a weed called hydrilla. Seems the stuff was
imported a number of years ago as a decoration for
fish tanks and lo and behold it ended up in the
water supply and communities have been waging war
against it ever since. I would only ask one
question. Why didn’t they look at the point of
origin for this stuff before they decided to start
using it? I mean, how difficult is that? Wouldn’t
you have thought someone, somewhere, might ask…”Hey,
how fast does this stuff grow if it gets loose?” How
many of us, raise your hands, have flushed Goldie or
Flipper down the old porcelain throne when they
started asking for their tummies to be tickled?
Sure, and a lot of folks just dumped the entire
contents into the bowl and flushed everything out to
sea. Only it doesn’t go to the sea, does it?
I’m surprised piranhas haven’t taken over some of
our lakes and rivers. Some fish lovers somewhere in
the country are bound to have captured some on a
trip to South America and then released them in
their neighborhood. I haven’t heard of anyone being
torn to shreds, but you just wait. I’ve always
heard you don’t want to go down in the sewers of New
York City due to the abundance of large alligators
who arrived as I mentioned in the above paragraph.
Whether this is true or not, who knows? Probably
just another of those urban legends.
Anyway, here I am reading that some researchers are
getting giddy over their findings concerning a tiny
Brazilian fly. For the benefit of those interested,
the correct name for these is a ‘humpbacked phorid.’
This fly is so small; it will fit under the nose of
Lincoln on a penny. I think they call those
‘no-see-ums’ in Alaska and Canada. You feel them,
but can’t see them. Anyway, these erstwhile
researchers have discovered that these tiny flies
cause havoc to fire ants. It seems they can find the
space between the ant’s armor and inject their eggs.
These eggs develop inside the ant and then kill the
ant when they burrow their way outside to do what?
…..why go lay more eggs, silly. Not a pleasant sort
of death, is it? But then what do I know, do ants
have feelings? If so, they’ll probably get very
emotional over carrying someone else’s litter of
thousands.
Pretty slick, huh?
On the one hand this looks like it might work since
entire colonies of fire ants have been known to pack
up and leave for Oklahoma or other parts of the
country when they get confronted by these new pests.
Of course, being the pragmatist that I am, I am
thinking ahead when there aren’t any more fire ants
to control. Then what?
Since these small bugs are hard to see, that only
makes it easier for them to invade my house and
avoid my rolled up newspaper. You can see and easily
kill a common housefly or a horse fly. Try and kill
some tiny, almost invisible bug that flits around
your nose and eyes. They’ll drive us crazy. We’ll
just have to wait and see. I’m not at all certain we
should be messing with nature on this one. Maybe
leave well enough alone.
One other note while we’re on this subject. They
have also found that a virus, somewhat related to
the common cold that can be spread to the ants and
cause them to die as well.
The people doing the research didn’t elaborate on
how the virus was spread, but I suppose it’s done
just like the colds we get. Some ant gets infected
and doesn’t cover his mouth (mouths?) and then some
other ant forgets to wash their mandibles or
whatever and before you know the entire mound is out
on sick leave. The Queen gets mad and wants to move
to a sunny locale, like Mexico. I think I prefer
this method over the previously described
fly/egg/death solution. I just wish someone would
think a little ahead and see how loud ants can
sneeze. We might not like what we hear.
