Art Of War On Weeds

NPR has an interesting piece tying in to National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week, about a man who creates art out of invasive plants.

Loosestrife-Torn

Check out today's All Things Considered on NPR and you can listen to (or read about) how reporter Michelle Norris made peace with the fact that the pretty perennial she had bought and planted in her yard in Washington D.C. was the invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). With advice from a local gardener, she determined that she had to, for the good of the environment, get rid of it. Sounds like it was a beast to pull out too!

Are You My Mommy?

Could you kill a creature (or smash its eggs) if it spoke back to you? Julie Zickefoose had a experience of this sort when she came across a starling (Sturnus vulgaris) that called her "Mom!" Check out the story in streaming audio over at NPR's All Things Considered.

Loathe To Admit

NPR is out with their list of the Five Most Despised Invasive Species, compiled from a poll of the Ecological Society of America and probably a few of you readers as well:

• zebra mussel
• cheatgrass
• Chinese mitten crab
• fire ant
• feral pig

I've gone ahead and compiled our own tiny data set from the blog comments [see here and here]. We managed to gather a pretty wide variety of loathed creatures for such a small data set! With a mere 8 contributors, this data has no real scientific value and is merely for our own interest:

• Most loathed species: A tie for 3 votes each between mute swan and garlic mustard
• Number of species in common with the NPR list: 2 [zebra mussel and fire ant]
• Total number of organism types represented: 9
• Organism types, ranked by number of votes:
  1. plants [10 votes]
  2. arthropods [insects etc., 9 votes]
  3. birds [6 votes]
  4. fish [4 votes]
  5. mammals [3 votes]
  6. bivalves [zebra mussel, 2 votes]
  7. reptiles [2 votes]
  8. algae [1 vote]
  9. annelids [worms, 1 vote]
• Organism types, ranked by number of different species voted for (not much different, but I thought you'd like to see the master list):
  1. plants [Australian pine (Casuarina equisetifolia), buckthorn (glossy and common, Frangula alnus and Rhamnus frangula), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), ginkgo (Gingko biloba), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata), spotted knapweed (Centaurea beibersteinii), tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima)]
  2. arthropods [cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis), emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), German cockroach (Blatella germanica), spongy moth (Lymantria dispar), harlequin ladybug (Harmonia axyridis), hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), house fly (Musca domestica), twig ant (Pseudomyrmex gracilis)]
  3. birds [house crow (Corvus splendens), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), Javan mynah (Acridotheres javanicus), mute swan (Cygnus olor)]
  4. fish [carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis, among several other genera), guppy (Lebistes reticulatus), Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), northern snakehead (Channa argus)]
  5. mammals [black rat (Rattus rattus), feral cat (Felis catus), Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus)]
  6. reptiles [brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)]
  7. bivalves [zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)]
  8. algae [didymo (Didymosphenia geminata)]
  9. annelids [European earthworm (Eisenia hortensis, among other genera)]

Aural Presentation

A follow-up on this post about NPR's "Most Loathed Invasive Species" feature:

I got an email from NPR's Science Reporter John Nielsen, letting me know that the piece has morphed into a write-up that is scheduled to debut on NPR's website during the last week of December, paired with a radio feature about the nasty new darling of invasive species media, Didymo (Didymosphenia geminata, also affectionately known as "rock snot").

John has received more than 300 lists of top five loathed invasives, so it will be interesting to hear what makes the cut. In the meantime, if you're still to get your words out, John has a new request:

if there is a species that you hate above all others and you don’t mind being quoted on the NPR web page, please send me a few lines full of bile and emotion or whatever re the species you have chosen.

Anyone game? If so, send email to jnielsen AT npr DOT org, and feel free to post your thoughts here - I'm thinking it is just too hard to narrow it down to one!

How Do I Loathe Thee?

In case you missed Friday's post, there is probably still time for you to get your two cents in to NPR about what you think are "The 5 most loathed invasive species in the world."

Fear And Self-Loathing On NPR

Want a chance to be heard on NPR? Science reporter John Nielsen is prepping a story for next week's news on the "five most loathed invasive species in the world." There are only two rules to follow here: 1) Be specific and 2) No diseases. I'd like to add a 3) No fair saying "humans" - we're too easy a target.

What would you put on the list? If you want to give John a piece of your mind, drop him a line at 202-513-2781 or email him at jnielsen AT npr DOT org. He's especially hoping to hear from scientists, but everyone is welcome to participate. If you're too shy to share with public radio, let's get a discussion started in the comments!

Here is my list, which was awfully hard to make, because I love all invasive species equally ;-). In no particular order:

• Didymo (Didymosphenia geminata) - The spread of this freshwater aquatic algae is near impossible to detect or control. It's all over New Zealand and was recently discovered in the Northeastern USA. I cannot think of an invader that would make resource managers feel more helpless or frustrated, and anglers are certainly peeved as well.
• Northern snakehead (Channa argus) - Hated widely because it is so charismatic, rather than for its impact. They've made two movies about this fish already!
• Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) - No one likes biting insects, especially ones that travel in packs.
• Mute swan (Cygnus olor) - Only because the amount that this species is hated by the people charged with managing them and people concerned with their environmental impact is directly proportional to the amount that this species is loved by animal rights activists and those captivated by their aesthetic qualities.
• The abominable feral kudzu hydrilla pig-carp. Okay, so this last one is a cop-out :-).

One Lump Or Two?

NPR has been playing some great invasive species-related coverage lately. This latest one comes from last Friday's All Things Considered, and tells the tale of the feral camels (Camelus dromedarius) that roam Australia. That's right: feral camels - 700,000 of them roaming the outback. What do you do when last century's transportation solution is this century's public nuisance? There's the usual hunting, and some eating of camel meat, but the best thing is definitely the camel races, where jockeys try in vain just to get their camels to run in the right direction. The audio here is really worth the listen. Interested folks might also want to check out this paper describing a study of the negative impacts of feral camels on the Australian desert.

Thanks to monopolist for thinking up the snazzy title :).