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Worst invasive species in North America

Tree of heaven - "The tree of heaven crowds out native species and secretes a chemical into the soil that is toxic to surrounding plants". I see this everywhere here in central PA.

Lantern Fly - just a pain when you have hundreds on the house

Zebra Muscles - but they make the water so clear for scuba diving!

The OP questions is a great one with so many good ones. I do agree we has humans have made a mess of things however there is no stopping the train at this point. My interest in history doesn't go beyond the 1800's (mountain men days) but like anything else it started with some type of survival and making money. "Money is the root of all evil" but it does by saddle hunting gear doesn't it.
 
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Crocs (both the 2wd and 4wd versions ) are invading our sensitive ecosystems like crazy

Total eradication is needed


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Emerald ash borer. Sad to see all the dead ash trees in the beautiful woods of Western New York!
That was going to be my exact response. Now we have to contend with the Asian Longhorned Beetle. Supposedly that will attack and kill any hardwood.
 
You're right. I'd say established is just "what's here right now." If I grow a petri dish full of one microbe, and then another microbe is introduced and starts to take over the dish, microbe 1 is established and microbe 2 is disruptive. No moral baggage there. Just an objective statement of what has occurred in the biome. As far as time goes it's irrelevant in my mind. I could have been sustaining that culture for years or for a few hours. The latest thing happening is almost always disruptive

But when you start talking about time...man, that leads to some crazy thoughts....

Disclaimer to all: the following numbers are based on the western secular view of the cosmos. Not trying to get political or start anything. Just throwing numbers out there 'cause they're fascinating. If you don't like my numbers, bear in mind I live with the constant Ranch Fairy/Ashby FOC number threads. ;)

Current best guess is that the universe is something like 14 billion years old. Earth we think is 4-5 billion. The eukaryotic revolution (all the critters we've been discussing) happened maybe 2ish billion years ago. Mammals enter the scene 180 million (notice the m now) years ago. Early humans showed up yesterday, or 2 million years ago. About 10,000 years ago (like, just a second ago) we started getting good at agriculture. In that time, we went from making up a very small percentage of terrestrial mammalian biomass to us and our wards compiling an estimated 96% of that mass today. Talk about sudden and disruptive. That's like opening your fridge to look for a ham sammich and when you close the door and look back at your home it's somehow been swarmed with roaches. All the prokaryotes are probably very unhappy with their rude new neighbors.

That being said, 96% sounds impressive until you realize that that 96% is like 2% of ALL the earth's biomass. Humans make up maybe 1% of all biomass today and a teeny, tiny, statistically irrelevant percentage of all biomass that has ever been.

When you look at it that way, our idea that we're going to wreck the planet is like the new hire at a decades-old company entering a number wrong in a spreadsheet on his first day and screaming about how he's brought financial ruin upon all the shareholders. It's cute. But you just never know...

If you can't tell, I think biology is fascinating. Unfortunately we're really bad at understanding it. Nobody on here gives 2 hoots about 98% of life because they either can't see it with the naked eye or it doesn't move around much. Then we very arbitrarily pick and choose from the remaining 2% (coyote bad, deer good) and try to shove a constantly evolving ecosystem into a static box. It's wild.
So in other words....fire ants suck
 
They are nice to lounge in or take trash out of something but other then that they are just ok. They suck when wet and feel awful with sticks and dirt and everything else get in between your feet and toes. They are a fair weather shoe.
 
I've seen less fire ants since the crazy ants showed up. They don't bite, but are still a pain. Had piles of dead crazy ants around the house last year. Not as many this year.
I've read about them but yet to see them...they are down further south Florida. They mess up ur electrical systems correct?
 
I’m still resisting

I may be the last hold out from wearing crocs


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I held out for as long as I could. Got my first pair about 2 months ago. I missed out on awesomeness for a lot of years! Don’t make the same mistake, get yourself a pair!
 
Multi flora rose, bush honey suckle, kudzu, Bradford pear, tree of heaven, spotted lantern fly, emerald ash borer, hogs, fire ants and the list goes on. The “worst” will vary depending on where you live.


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By my house, the Russian olives. I think I am allergic to them when they bloom in the spring. They smell kinda good, but they sure can over take an area as well.
 
aab882569b33fd0eb107ee48e53b4a95.jpg


Crocs (both the 2wd and 4wd versions ) are invading our sensitive ecosystems like crazy

Total eradication is needed


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I heard squirrels have been spotted wearing them. :mask:
 
I've read about them but yet to see them...they are down further south Florida. They mess up ur electrical systems correct?
funny...fire ants suck almost all the way down to miami but once you get that far even the ants dont like it. just scummy people that like to honk their horns. SC was really bad.
 
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