When man concurs all

[Red Ink AUS]

Hi Guys,

It with great sadness that I would inform you of this. There will be thousands of reptiles that are going to die in the next following months here in Australia (quite possibly the biggest mass reptile death in recent memory). And as a trickle effect so will predators that prey on them as well as amphibians and fish.

After a decade of drought here it has finally broken this year, finally the land can recoperate and the animals can rejoice. Unfortunately there has been an unforeseen side effect of the drought breaking. We are now bracing our selves for a large locust plague as much as 9000 eggs per sq mtr (biggest known in 40 years). It is threatening a lot of farming land and crops. So the solution mass poisoning of the land. The poison they are planning on using has a kill effect of 8-10 days on juvie-adult locust. That means they would be slow enough as an easy prey for any insectivorous reptile. The build up of toxins in the reptile's body will result in death after consuming a quantity of poisoned locust.

The two poisons they are going to be using are Green Guard it is a fungal based poison as well as a poison called Fipronil.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12836967

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12836967

After years of struggling with drought these poor creatures must now give way to us as we must eat and need to save millions of dollars worth of crops.

 

[Justus85]

Now this is a dilemma. I am torn between my concern for the reptiles and acknowledgement of the necessity of saving these crops from the locust plague. I do wish there was another way.

 

[Pogie]

OMG this is sooo sad :'(. But also I understand the need to save the crops.

IDK what to say, wish there was some other way. It makes me think about that song by Michael Jackson "The earth song"

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO THE WORLD !!!!!

 

[ladyknite]

maybe I'm off base here. Who knows. But from what I'm gathering from everything else i read, the locusts haven't swarmed yet right?
If this were in the US and in areas where the natural habitat and the animals would be greatly affected, the crops would be destroyed, and all living things would have significant impact, they would burn them out before their final state of pupating.
I realize that Australia has alot of vast open land which makes this hugely difficult but has something to that extent not been attempted?

 

[zebraflavencs]

What other natural predators do the locust have ? If not , then I would agree with lk.. firing the wilds in controlled fires would be the next idea...
Just my opinion..

 

[staylor]

This is such a lose lose situation. I hate when choices need to be made like that.

 

[beardielover17]

Ugh what a terrible situation. I would probably be crying even though that's how things have to be sometimes. I hope they find a way around this without sacrificing much

 

[Red Ink AUS]

maybe I'm off base here. Who knows. But from what I'm gathering from everything else i read, the locusts haven't swarmed yet right?
If this were in the US and in areas where the natural habitat and the animals would be greatly affected, the crops would be destroyed, and all living things would have significant impact, they would burn them out before their final state of pupating.
I realize that Australia has alot of vast open land which makes this hugely difficult but has something to that extent not been attempted?

They have a full govt. committee studying plague locust here in OZ (not made up of bureaucratic idiots but actual scientist from the CSIRO). Unfortunately the land is to vast to do a controlled burn off. The land affected is actually part of the farming lands, that's where the swarms have been laying so if we burn that off we end up with no crops either. The locust started the egg laying process and localised swarms are starting to appear. They are predicting that the plague would be large enough to reach Melbourne, which is over 300km away from the spawning grounds by November. It's a very sad situation but unfortunately there's no easy answer to this one.

Janie reptiles and birds are the natural predators of the locust. The shear number of the plague won't make a dent in the population due to predation. That's why it's sad that the animals finally get a time of plenty after years of draught only to be poisoned the the same thing they have been waiting for.

 

[zebraflavencs]

*shakes head sadly*.

 

[ladyknite]

The land affected is actually part of the farming lands, that's where the swarms have been laying so if we burn that off we end up with no crops either.

Cup half full?

How's it going down there Francis?

 

[Red Ink AUS]

The land affected is actually part of the farming lands, that's where the swarms have been laying so if we burn that off we end up with no crops either.

Cup half full?

How's it going down there Francis?

No new news at the moment, no doubt this will get swept under the rug so to speak.

 

[Red Ink AUS]

They're here,

Sightings of swarms as close as 30 kms away from Melbourne CBD.

 

[BigDaddyDragon]

Complete b.s., I'm really upset. I never saw this post until now. Best of luck Francis, you will be in my thoughts.

 

[Pogie]

Ugh this truely sucks Francis. I was so hoping theyd stay away.................

 

[Red Ink AUS]

They're more of a nuissance for my part than detrimental really but I feel bad for the farmers loosing their crops to the buggers. Now we have had the draught break it has been raining like buggery here and the bumper crops that were ready to be harvested are mow mostly lost to floods. There's actually severe storm warnings on for most of the state of Victoria (Melbourne) and major rivers are bursting their banks with some towns under water already. These poor farmers first year no draught and looking like a fantastic crop only to have them ruined by floods 2 weeks before harvest.

On the plus side I'll be catching some locust to feed my BD when I get around to it, he hasn't had any in years.

 

[renich]

Man, sorry to hear it. Farming is hard work. I'd be devastated to have all that hard work ruined.