Does anyone live in Australia?

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Read this:

Killer ants threaten Australia

An infestation of ants which is attacking numerous animal species in Australia is threatening to spread across the country, scientists have warned.
Described as one of the world's most vicious species of ant, the yellow crazy ant sprays formic acid into the eyes of other animals, leaving them vulnerable to attack and unable to feed themselves.

YELLOW CRAZY ANTS
One-centimetre long
So named because of their erratic behaviour when a nest is disturbed
Originally from India
The ants have already wiped out up to 20 million red crabs, as well as birds and other animals on Australia's Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean since 1989, and have since spread to 63 locations in the Northern Territory on the mainland.

Canberra's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) warned on Friday that, if left unchecked, ant populations would proliferate across Northern Australia and beyond.

"It is simply a matter of when will it happen," said CSIRO researcher Ben Hoffmann.

This little yellow crazy ant will destroy our culture, our land, our life

Aboriginal ranger Balupalu Yunupingu

Mr Hoffmann said the ants' victims died, not from the attack, but from starvation because they were blind.

The CSIRO, in association with two Aboriginal land management groups, is developing a three-year plan to wipe out a large infestation centred on a 90-kilometre (56 mile) radius around the mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the north-eastern tip of the Northern Territory.

Multiple queens

Mr Hoffmann said yellow crazy ants formed multi-
queened "super-colonies" in which ants occur at extremely high densities over large areas.

"The density of foraging worker ants in super-colonies is amazing, reaching around 1,000 per square metre or 79 million per hectare of bush," he said.

Once a super-colony is established, it can expand rapidly, growing around its edges by some three metres (10 feet) per day or one kilometre (more than half a mile) a year, he said.

Originally from India, the crazy ants are believed to have been introduced to Australia about 60 to 70 years ago.

From www.bbc.co.uk/news
 
Is this supposed to be a shock? It's no surprise Australia's crawling with extremely dangerous insects, spiders, and animals.
 
Just like those killer bees that were supposed to take over the U.S. :rolleyes:. It's just to scare people, that's all.

OA
 
Originally posted by supra229
Read this:

Killer ants threaten Australia

An infestation of ants which is attacking numerous animal species in Australia is threatening to spread across the country, scientists have warned.
Described as one of the world's most vicious species of ant, the yellow crazy ant sprays formic acid into the eyes of other animals, leaving them vulnerable to attack and unable to feed themselves.

YELLOW CRAZY ANTS
One-centimetre long
So named because of their erratic behaviour when a nest is disturbed
Originally from India
The ants have already wiped out up to 20 million red crabs, as well as birds and other animals on Australia's Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean since 1989, and have since spread to 63 locations in the Northern Territory on the mainland.

Canberra's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) warned on Friday that, if left unchecked, ant populations would proliferate across Northern Australia and beyond.

"It is simply a matter of when will it happen," said CSIRO researcher Ben Hoffmann.

This little yellow crazy ant will destroy our culture, our land, our life

Aboriginal ranger Balupalu Yunupingu

Mr Hoffmann said the ants' victims died, not from the attack, but from starvation because they were blind.

The CSIRO, in association with two Aboriginal land management groups, is developing a three-year plan to wipe out a large infestation centred on a 90-kilometre (56 mile) radius around the mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the north-eastern tip of the Northern Territory.

Multiple queens

Mr Hoffmann said yellow crazy ants formed multi-
queened "super-colonies" in which ants occur at extremely high densities over large areas.

"The density of foraging worker ants in super-colonies is amazing, reaching around 1,000 per square metre or 79 million per hectare of bush," he said.

Once a super-colony is established, it can expand rapidly, growing around its edges by some three metres (10 feet) per day or one kilometre (more than half a mile) a year, he said.

Originally from India, the crazy ants are believed to have been introduced to Australia about 60 to 70 years ago.

From www.bbc.co.uk/news
Click to expand...

A lot of people at GTP live in Australia, and your about to create a rukcus with this.
 
Northern Territory isn't exactly our whole exosystem you know...they'll be gone after a while. Never heard about it on the news.
 
Yep, another Aussie here.

I had heard about it, it was mentioned in the news on Sunday - got to love bugs called 'cray ants'.

I think they've found about 80-90 nests in the Northern Territory.

Due to our isolation, we do periodically get infestations of this sort - European wasps come immediately to mind - it's pretty rare they get out of hand. The CSIRO (Govt science body) is pretty cluey about getting on top of these things.
 
The bees are currently being thwarted in Central America through several programs, but they keep adapting (although not as quickly as was first suspected.)
I have no doubt that they eventually will make their way through parts of the US from everything I have seen in print and on the discovery channel.
Introducing foreign species into an ecosystem is always a danger until nature is able to balance itself out. Anyone old enough might remember how Gypsy moths had decimated trees across the US many years ago. I also think that Australia has also had Rabbit problems in the past (or currently) thanks to us.
Australia is also an extremely unique ecosystem containing many species that do not exist anywhere else in the world because they lacked certain levels of natural selection (which is why there are so many marsupials dominating whereas they generally died out in the rest of the world due to competition with mammals.)
The great thing about people though is that "where there is the will, there is a way." If enough people decide that this is an intolerable threat (like the killer bees) they will take every step necessary to thwart them.
 
No. No-one is as shocked as you Klostrophobic. But i really didn't know people lived in America.
 
Yeah. Me neither. I always thought America was like Antarctica. Only scientists live there but only because they are studying stuff.
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
So let me get this straight. People live in Australia?

Is anyone as shocked as I am?
Click to expand...

Raises hand.

Nods head.

Will Smith déja-vu, ugh.
 
Originally posted by duo17
Just like those killer bees that were supposed to take over the U.S. :rolleyes:. It's just to scare people, that's all.

OA
Click to expand...
Don't worry. You'll have them in Virginia soon enough. In Arizona you think twice about killing a bee.
 
And the Asian Longhorn Beetle in Chicago. They arrived in crates from China and started killing all the trees in Chicago. One of the nicest, oldest neighborhoods in CHicago lost all it's trees to this innocent looking beetle. They ended up having to cut down all the trees. It was pretty sad.
 
As I live in the UK not much happens except on one occasion a herd of cows broke loose and came stampeding into our school field! It was during an asembily and the head teacher was looking at us while we were laughing as cows charged around the field being chased by farmers!

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Yep, another Aussie here.

I had heard about it, it was mentioned in the news on Sunday - got to love bugs called 'cray ants'.

I think they've found about 80-90 nests in the Northern Territory.

Due to our isolation, we do periodically get infestations of this sort - European wasps come immediately to mind - it's pretty rare they get out of hand. The CSIRO (Govt science body) is pretty cluey about getting on top of these things.
Click to expand...
Gonna head to the Aussie GP, vat_man? I'll have to relocate to Melbourne - they've got the best tracks in Oz.

Also, I live in Oz. I've heard of/been involved in many of these sorts of things and nothing has gotten out of hand so, yeah, it's just false information.
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
So let me get this straight. People live in Australia?

Is anyone as shocked as I am?
Click to expand...
:lol:

"Human life discovered in Australia, not long after they found out that there was, in fact, bacterial life on the continent of America."
 
Man, I always hear about another animal thats going to take over the ecosystem.


Australia can handle it. People have thought everything from Cane Toads, to Camels and Wild Pigs would ruin the place. It might also surprise people to know that Dingo's were also a Feral species that was introduced to Australia by explorers around 3,000 yrs ago. Even the mice and rats in Australia are a Feral species (meaning introduced). Its only because Australia was geographically isolated for so long.


Just keep those Salty's around to make quick work of the pigs and Dingo's!


The snakes will also have fun with the rats and mice.

The crows have already figured out how to a eat a Cane Toad without getting poisoned. I've also heard that crocodiles are immune to the Cane Toad Poison as well.

Damn, those crocodiles are tough sons of *****es!
 
I knew Dingos weren't native nor were red foxes, the native mammal life are marsupials!

for more information consult your local libary:D
 

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