

Has insect detective Timothy Paine uncovered a case of biological sabotage? - gruseom
http://failuremag.com/index.php/feature/article/californias_bioterror_mystery

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Smudge
I appreciate that the headline on HN has been toned-down from the original.
The word "bioterrorism" definitely doesn't apply to what may be going on here.

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grassclip
This may now apply now though.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headlines>

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breadbox
Even the toned-down link text given here is somewhat unfair to the article,
which is really about how we deal with an introduced plant (in this case the
eucalyptus tree in California) that has both good and bad effects on the local
biota. There is no clear The Right Thing to do here, and it's a fascinating
issue to consider.

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wiredfool
It's how we deal with a non-native plant, but the interesting bit is the
strange introduction frequency and odd spatial pattern of insects that kill
and injure that particular plant.

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phreeza
Site seems to be down. Readibility via google cache:
<http://www.readability.com/articles/vap3uudt>

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fideloper
I'm not ashamed to admit that I could use a tl;dr version.

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freiheit
In the 150 years that eucalyptus have been in California, only quite recently
have their native pests made it over from Australia. It's possible somebody is
intentionally bringing eucalyptus harming pests over and there's some decent
evidence pointing towards that.

Further, there's some debate whether eucalyptus in California is beneficial or
an invasive weed and whether attempts to introduce the pests' predators are a
good idea or not.

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Wingman4l7
I was curious as to what the evidence for deliberate pest introduction was, so
I skimmed the pertinent section of the article, and came away with this:

\-- the infestation "jumped" from one part of CA to another

\-- rumors of an individual bragging about having moved the borer

\-- borers initially detected in S. CA (ports/airports would make N. CA more
likely)

\-- introductions of borers occurred in bunches with multi-year lulls

\-- native ranges of borer species all include the same east coast AU state

\-- the 2 invasive eucalyptus species are particularly suceptible to these
borers

\-- pests have appeared in CA first before spreading; 7 are found only in AU
and CA

\-- nursery trade does not import eucalyptus

\-- 14/17 of AU pests introduced in CA since 1980 are eucalyptus-specific

\-- only 2/16 eucalyptus pests arrived with their predators

\-- no South America / Asia pests have invaded CA, only AU pests

Arguments against this theory:

\-- borer is the only pest so far found that is fatal to the eucalyptus

\-- pests could survive the 14-15 hour direct flight in a plane's cargo hold

