11/18/10 A Book about Invasive Species

     I recently read the book Alien Invaders by Jane Drake and Ann Love. This book is for ages 9 -12 and is fine for adults too. It covers exotics from the microscopic size to giant European pigs. One thing I liked best about this book is it lists the domestic-feral cats as the destructive exotic they are. Many books shy away from calling cats an exotic as it is not politically correct. Animals raised and bread by humans are by law called “Domestic”.  By law domestic animals must be under the control of a human at all times. Examples would be the Florida lease law for cat and dogs, or a fence restraining a herd of cows or horses. I’ve had cats as pets most of my life. I’m not anti cat by any means; I’m just anti “outdoor” cats decimating our native species.

          It’s funny how exotics often make the best pets. This book did have a chapter on Cane Toads. I once took a trip to Homestead Florida to collect some exotic Can Toads (Bufo marinus) to keep as pets. I kept four of them for years and they got bigger and fatter each month on a diet of exotic Cuban Anoles (Anolis sagrei).

          There was also a chapter on the Walking Cat Fish. I once saw a Walking Cat fish on the East side of Orlando. It was a rainy day and the cat fish was winding back and forth across a parking lot. If I had known that it was exotic at that time I would have fed it to my pet Snapping Turtle. But I didn’t know and we both went on about our day. Knowledge is power and lack of knowledge leads to trouble.

          Alien Invaders also had a chapter on Kudzu vine. I haven’t seen Kudzu much here in Orlando.  I hear it’s more a problem in North Florida and adjoining states. Here we fight Air Potato vines which often cover entire wooded areas. Once I identified Air Potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) as an exotic I set to ridding my 5 ½ acre property of it. I have rid my property of Air Potato and Cesar weed (Urena lobata) which took me a year. Now I’m working on getting the thousands and thousands of Cesar Weed plants out of Blanchard Park. I’ve removed and burned over six thousand Cesar Weed plants as of this writing.

          Also on my hit list are Fire Ants (Solonopsis invitis), Cuban Tree Frogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis), Taro plants (Colocasia esculenta), Water Hayacinths (Eichhornia crassipes), Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and Chinese Tallow Trees (Sapium sebiferum).