Post by coachman on Oct 19, 2008 13:49:29 GMT
A super-weed has just gained the headlines in this weeks papers, The Japanese Knotweed is an extremely fast grower and is already having an adverse affect on the British countryside. You can read about it HERE!
The powers-that-be are considering introducing a bug from Japan to combat this weed - but is that a good idea? The woman in the song that I used in the title swallowed a spider to eat the fly and of course ended up swallowing a horse which eventually killed her
This bug apparently eats very little except Japanese Knotweed but what happens 20 years down the line when the bug can no longer find its natural food in any quantity? Will it start tucking in to tomatoes? apples? perhaps even cereal crops? And, as Japanese knotweed is poisonous to most insects (The stalks are edible to us when cooked) would there be an impact on animals higher up the feeding chain like birds and reptiles?
Do you think its right to mess around with nature in this way (despite the fact that the weed was introduced by humans in the first place)
Have a vote - and let others on the bayweb know your views or worries ;D
The powers-that-be are considering introducing a bug from Japan to combat this weed - but is that a good idea? The woman in the song that I used in the title swallowed a spider to eat the fly and of course ended up swallowing a horse which eventually killed her
This bug apparently eats very little except Japanese Knotweed but what happens 20 years down the line when the bug can no longer find its natural food in any quantity? Will it start tucking in to tomatoes? apples? perhaps even cereal crops? And, as Japanese knotweed is poisonous to most insects (The stalks are edible to us when cooked) would there be an impact on animals higher up the feeding chain like birds and reptiles?
Do you think its right to mess around with nature in this way (despite the fact that the weed was introduced by humans in the first place)
Have a vote - and let others on the bayweb know your views or worries ;D
I had been telling my hubby about the time I was in Morecombe when the Moby Dick and Hotel was hit by lightening and burnt down. My parents, sister and myself had just come off the Moby Dick when lightening stuck