In article ,
Jake wrote:

Perhaps the issue is that the spanish bluebell is aggressive and could
probably satisfy the definition of invasive before too long. Foreign
introductions usually turn out to be a mistake, not just in the UK of
course - Australia's battling cane toads and even camels! Here the
grey squirrel's killing off the red, well at least the virus it
carries is.

Er, no. It isn't significantly more invasive than the native one.
It is a bit, but not enough to get excited about.

Let's not forget that gardeners introduced Japanese Knotweed,
Hilalayan Balsam, the so-called "Oxford Ragwort" and others. OK, maybe
the last was introduced by botanists not gardeners.

Only the first is a serious problem. Himalayan balsam is very
invasive, but does not form monocultures by excluding all other
plants. And Oxford ragwort isn't a problem at all.

The point is that almost all of our ecology is new - 11,000 years.
We probably have the ecology that is most resistant to alien
species of anywhere on earth.

I'm worried about the "being" that's being released to combat
knotweed. If the experiment succeeds knotweed will presumably cease to
be a problem but then a horde of "beings" will look for an alternative
food source. It's called evolution I think.

They have been and are testing for that. Species-specific parasites
very rarely behave as you say.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.