On Tue, 3 Aug 2004 19:57:41 +0100, atwifa wrote:

which begs another question: if you (as a gardener and an allergenic) had
the power to wipe out wasps utterly ... would you do it? i'm not making
light of the situation by asking, i'm just curious.

Heavens no! Wasps undoubtedly play an important ecological role,
even if we don't fully understand it.

I draw the attention of those interested to the current issue of
Scientific American, wherein the ecological consequences of the
re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming, USA, are described. They are all to the good; the wolves
predate herbivores which had been in turn chomping all the young
tree seedlings.

Add wolves, and the trees start to regenerate after the
herbivores themselves are chomped. Who would have foreseen this?

The only folks unhappy are the ranchers around Yellowstone.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

Following up to Rodger Whitlock

Add wolves, and the trees start to regenerate after the
herbivores themselves are chomped. Who would have foreseen this?

The Lake District and Scottish Highlands only look as they do
because they are overgrazed by sheep and deer.
--
Mike Reid
If god wanted us to be vegetarians he wouldn't have made animals out of meat.
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap