Invasive Species

Imagine aliens arriving to Earth, with the intentions to survive. They take up space and take humans food sources. This is essentially what invasive species do here on Earth, causing many problems. A prime example of invasive species are the Europeans coming to the Americas and settling, eventually taking all of the land. An invasive species is a foreign species that gets transported, whether intentional or not, to a new ecosystem. They then disrupt the ecosystem, usually growing in population and killing other species, because there are checks and balances already set in the ecosystem. Some of the damages caused by invasive species, how to eradicate them, and what we can do to prevent them, will be discussed in this writing. Invasive species

Like the approach that is being taken in Yellowstone. The officials there are going to remove the native fish from the streams, then put a poison called rotenone, to kill all of the invaders. A park in Utah is having a similar problem, but is taking a different approach to remove the invaders. In Red Hills Desert Garden, they will remove the native fish, like in Yellowstone, but instead of poisoning the fish, they will simply drain the water from the streams, letting the remaining invasive fish dry up. Another way to remove fish is introduce new species that can eat them and control them more. This is the case in many Mississippi connected bodies of water. The asian carp have taken over many parts of the Mississippi and a few of the great lakes. In an attempt to control this very invasive fish, the government has began to introduce the alligator gar. The massive, 8 foot, 300 pound fish, are expected to eat many of the rapidly reproducing asian carp. Going back to the brown tree snake, “The federal government is preparing to drop dead mice laced with a snake toxicant into the jungles of Guam in the latest effort to control the thousands of brown tree snakes that have invaded the Pacific island.” (Entertainment News Service). The mice will have streamers attached to catch on trees and will be laced with 80 mg of acetaminophen, which

“The European grapevine moth, first spotted in California in 2009, has been declared eradicated on US soil. It took seven years' worth of effort to defeat the insect” (Williams). The way they accomplished this is by genetically changing the males so they can’t find a mate and reproduce, eventually causing the species to fall. This is one of the few times that eradicating an invasive species have been accomplished successfully. Some people have concerns with some of the methods taken. For instance, the alligator gar is still seen as evil by fisherman and some believe they won’t be able to control the carp. Fisherman in the area will also want to catch the gar as trophies, harming the plan to remove the asian