Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants 398
eldavojohn writes "What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and — oddly enough — electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches."
Anonymous Coward (Score:4, Funny)
I for one welcome our new Zombie Fire Ant overlords.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
I for one welcome our new Zombie Fire Ant overlords.
Somebody with an ant farm moderated you a Troll.
You may remember (Score:5, Funny)
Hi, I'm a zombifying parasite. You may remember me from such insects as cockroaches and grasshoppers.
Re:You may remember (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
Just like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Meet the new overlords, same as the old overlords.
Dude, 01/20/09 was several months ago.
Re:Just like... (Score:5, Funny)
Spawn more overlords!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Don't blame me; I voted for Kodos.
Bring the over-overlords! (Score:5, Interesting)
When they mentioned bringing the natural predator from another continent, I imagined this [linkbrazil.com.br].
Now, that would be a cool animal to set loose in Texas!
Re: (Score:2)
came for this. Thanks AC
No doubt. On behalf of all of us, I hereby grant the AC the "Most Appropriate Use of the 'I for one welcome..' Meme Ever" Award.
Ants, people. Ants in space... zombie fire ants... Would you like us a draw you a map, or a diagram of some kind? With colorful labels and arrows?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
hmm, is this is fork of openldap that I don't know about?
Eh. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Eh. (Score:5, Funny)
I think they've already gotten to the politicians first. The brain dead are sometimes hard to tell apart from normal people.
Re: (Score:2)
It's the "normal people" I worry about.
Many politicians just pretend to be stupid because in many cases voters prefer voting for people who are like them (i.e. stupid).
In some places voters might prefer voting for people who are smarter. But in others, appearing to be smart seems to lose you votes.
Occam's Razor & Peter Principle (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, I'm very tempted to apply:
1. Occam's Razor. If someone consistently acts stupid, talks stupid, etc, there are two possible explanations:
A: He's stupid.
B: He's a really really smart guy and a great actor, and pretends so well to be stupid that nobody can tell the difference.
I think you'll agree that the first is the simpler explanation.
2. The Peter Principle: everyone keeps getting promoted until they become incompetent for the job they just got promoted to. (E.g., because it needs different skills than the previous one.)
Politicians are actually one of the original examples in Peter's book. To get elected you need charisma, basically. But after you get elected, you need stuff like management skills, you need to know economics, etc. None of those played any role in convincing the people to elect you. So it's quite easy to end up with a bunch of elected politicians who genuinely don't have any more skills than talking convincingly out the arse and looking good in front of a camera. The skills they'd actually need to do a good job in the office, they simply don't have.
Worse yet, we elect those who can _lie_ convincingly or at least conveniently not mention half the truth. My standard example is the Phillips curve: all else being equal (and invariably out of your control), inflation and unemployment depend on each other. You push one down, the other goes up. Now think of all the politicians whose claim to deserving the office is, basically, "OMG, under the current government there is inflation! We'll reduce that!" or conversely for unemployment. But they never mention that their plan involves the other going _up_. If they told you that, that would be political suicide. So their getting elected depends on claiming to get one up, while strongly implying and getting you to assume (though not actually saying so) that the other will obviously stay put.
Or occasionally one promises to solve both. 'Cause, I suppose, if you're going to lie anyway, might as well go all the way.
Then we wonder how come they lie after they got elected, instead of actually doing what they promised. Duh. Because we tested their ability to lie, not the ability to do what they promised. We just promoted someone to a position for which they're unqualified and incompetent.
3. As a bonus: Hanlon's Razor. Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I don't doubt that some of the above mentioned don't outright lie, but genuinely Peter's Principle applies. They don't understand economics well enough to know that they're promising an impossibility.
Re:Occam's Razor & Peter Principle (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you read this
http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf [apa.org]
People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.
It's truly +1 Funny/Insightful. And yet highly disturbing (-1 Troll) too, because clearly everyone must have areas where they lack ability and also lack 'metacognitive ability' to know they lack ability. It's absolutely an awesome read the first time you do so.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's not funny, you asshole. Relativists sort of killed my father, and kinda raped my mother. Well.... It's sort of a grey area, what they did...
Re:Eh. (Score:5, Informative)
Have you ever read the essay, "Santaland Diaries," by David Sedaris?
No.
Have you ever watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Michael Douglas, the producer, complained to somebody that the mental patients never seem to get out of character. Somebody informed him that many of the extras on the film were recruited from an actual mental hospital.
I'm not going to mention Kramer [tv.com] here.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Watched? You WATCHED One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? What good does that do, if you don't turn the pages? Isn't anyone literate anymore? Does no one READ anything that Hollywood doesn't produce? Phhhhtt.
FYI, I've watched the movie and I've read the book. The same with Catch 22, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughter House 5, and many, many others. Unfortunately the movie producer Michael Douglas was not featured in the book, so it wouldn't have been relevant to mention the book in my post.
And yes, I may have read books that Hollywood hasn't produced. I don't know, because I generally don't check to see if Hollywood made a movie of it before reading.
Misleading Headline (Score:5, Funny)
My first thought was "Why does Texas need a zombie to terminate the employment of ants, and how did they get a job in the first place?"
Then I realized, this is Texas, afterall.
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Re:Misleading Headline (Score:4, Interesting)
This is why we in Denmark join words. The headline would read:
Texas Makes Zombiefireants
The problem is when people then forget to join them. Because we are used to joined words, it makes it extra hard to not read the ambiguous meaning.
Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Funny)
I take it you don't have 'experts exchange' in Denmark?
I tell you what (Score:5, Funny)
This is what those environmentalists should be doing. Using nature against nature in ways that can help man.
---Hank Hill of Arlen, TX
Obilgatory Simpsons (Score:5, Funny)
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
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This is ridiculous (Score:5, Funny)
The Selfish Gene (Score:3, Informative)
Richard Dawkins talks about ants doing this kind of stuff in his book: The Selfish Gene.
It's an awesome book to read if you want to learn more about the world you're living in and also reasoning behind a lot of human behaviour.
Re: (Score:2)
Posting on Slashdot aint gunna get you chicks. Explain that!
Silver bullet impact (Score:5, Funny)
"These are very slow acting," Plowes said. "It's more like a cumulative impact measured across a time frame of years. It's not an immediate silver bullet impact."
Well of course there's no silver bullet impact for zombie fire ants, but if we need to get rid of some werewolf fire ants, the silver bullets might do the trick!
I can see it now... (Score:2, Funny)
Coming this summer to a theatre near you:
Texas Zombie Ant Chainsaw Massacre!
How's that for a mashup?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I was gonna say this headline seemed to be missing a couple words. :)
uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
When are the Russians going to get around to linking all these zombies into a botnet? Or would that be a bugnet?
Stock Tip... (Score:4, Interesting)
Whatever company that makes RAID (bug spray, not disk stuff)...
BUY!
The product will be needed soon, and in great quantities.
Porky Pig tried this once. (Score:5, Funny)
Porky Pig tried this once in an old Bug Bunny cartoon.
He had a mouse problem, so he bought a cat.
When Porky Pig went to bed, the cat invited all of his friends over and they got wasted played the piano loudly and sang drinking songs. One of the cats had a lampshade on his head and everything.
When Porky Pig got fed up with this, he bought a dog. How he found a place in the 50's or 60's that sold dogs in the middle of the night is anyone's guess. He let the dog loose in the house and waited.
The cats got the dog drunk and he was singing with them in about 30 seconds.
So obviously these flies are eventually going to get drunk and sing, which is pretty cool, making this plan sweet.
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I hate to reply to myself, but I found the actual cartoon on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KnRaNw1Un8 [youtube.com]
It turns out to be from 1945.
"The flies do not attack native ants..." (Score:5, Insightful)
The phorids will have whole generations to refine their taste.
No need (Score:4, Insightful)
In Texas, fire ants are bountiful. There will be no need to attack other ants...
Of course that's now, it will be interesting to see what happens when the fire ant population starts dwindling. But basically these will probably just keep it in more of a natural check.
Ex-wife (Score:4, Funny)
Can I get something like this for my ex-wife?
So many... (Score:2)
There are just so many bad science fiction plotlines here...and in all of them, we end up mining underground sugar caves for Nazgulesque maggots astride their fearsome zombie fire ants. In a few, we end up being tortured by the fire ants' Neo, who hunts
Re: (Score:2)
Sucker! (Score:2)
We are the disease... we are the cure... we are the disease... we are the cure...
SUCKER!
Alternatives? (Score:2)
San Antonio (Score:2, Interesting)
Australians have a simpler solution (Score:5, Informative)
More info can be found here [abc.net.au]
Nature will find a way (Score:4, Interesting)
That works only if fire ants don't evolve to have multiple queens in one colony, like the fire ants here in Texas did. To add insult to injury, the worker fire ants will not feed all the queens the same foods, making it difficult to kill all the queens in a colony through poisoning.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
shock headline (Score:4, Funny)
It's 6:23 in the AM, and this is what's sitting on my RSS reader:
Some days you just want to crawl back into bed.
another solution (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Way to fuck over the native ants, Texas. Not to mention any other unpredictable side-effects, which, when talking about introduced species, are /ALWAYS BAD/.
Too true.
Exhibit A: American colonials
Re:What stupidity. (Score:4, Informative)
At one point these poor asteroidea were cut into pieces as a form of population control. People realized that the population was doubling. Turns out, they can regrow into separate functioning organisms.
Kinda like fantasia and mickey mouse and the brooms, y'know.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:4, Funny)
Yep, you may have heard of the cane toads we have here in Australia. They were introduced to kill off cane beetles - well, there's been more than a few side effects of that particular decision.
Of course, you've just introduced a bug that drills itself into animals' brains and eats them, without killing the animal itself till some time later. How could that possibly go wrong?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
You said:
Not animals. Insects. The distinction does matter.
Once again I will quote Wikipedia:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Mandibulata
Class: Insecta
and:
Insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:4, Funny)
Both of my older sons can recite the list of all the Pokemon... nothing could be more diverse than that.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Listen Jimmy, if a zombie fire ant ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about! Zombie fire ants crawl in through your ear and feed on your brains while you're asleep, WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THEM ZOMBIES?
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hence, sometimes people distinguish between animals and fish
Animals and fish? I don't think I've ever heard that split before. People often say things like "well at least we're not animals," or "humans can contemplate their existence, unlike animals," however I feel like that just stems from not having a precise term defining the set of all animals, minus humans.
Of course, even if we did have such a term, would it include homo sapiens sapiens and neanderthals? At what point would we be considered separate from the rest of the animal kingdom?
Getting back to the animals, we have several terms that can mean different things. For example a vegetarian might say "I don't eat meat," but in common parlance of lots of cookbooks (especially cookbooks over a decade or two old) you have meat, poultry, fish, game, and pork.
So-called pescetarians might eat plants + seafood, or just plants + fish. Wikipedia indicates that the word is a portmanteau of the Italian word pesce [wikipedia.org] ("fish") + vegetarian; if a person eats things beyond just fish (e.g. crustaceans), should we use a different word?
"Omnivore" isn't much better, as I certainly don't eat everything. I can't even eat tomato plants and rhubarb leaves -- things that look remotely edible. But people generally understand each other, even if our words aren't as precisely specified as much people would like.
Animal (Score:5, Funny)
Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
Screw taxonomy. If it moves, it's an animal, eat it. If it don't move, it might be vegetable, eat it. If it wasn't a vegetable, you needed your minerals anyway.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
People are animals too, as are insects and worms and fish and dogs and frogs.
Being a member of Animalia usually means you're an animal, but the common term animal is not universally applied to Parazoa/Porifera(sponges) even though sponges are technically part of the "Animal kingdom".
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
And several have been elected to Congress.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
People are animals too, as are insects and worms and fish and dogs and frogs.
Being a member of Animalia usually means you're an animal, but the common term animal is not universally applied to Parazoa/Porifera(sponges) even though sponges are technically part of the "Animal kingdom".
I think in general though, it would be easier to control mammals (like us humans) and amphibians rather than insects which tend to bread much more vociferously.
I think that since this is a science topic and a "nerd" Web site that the use of the term "animal" should be used in its more scientific (rather than colloquial) meaning.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
Your quote:
Introducing foreign species, even to battle other foreign species /NEVER WORKS/.
I'm not sure about never but there are often unforeseen consequences. Even Looney Toons had a classic cartoon on this.
In some cases, biological pest control can have unforeseen negative results that could outweigh all benefits. For example, when the mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to control the rat population, it preyed on the endemic birds of Hawaii, especially their eggs, more often than it ate the rats.
Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were introduced to Australia in the 1930s in a failed attempt to control the cane beetle, a pest of sugar cane crops. 102 toads were obtained from Hawaii and bred in captivity to increase their numbers until they were released into the sugar cane fields of the tropic north in 1935. It was later discovered that the toads can't jump very high so they did not eat the cane beetles which stayed up on the upper stalks of the cane plants. The toads soon became very numerous and out-competed native species and became very harmful to the Australian environment, including being very toxic to would-be predators such as native snakes.
- Ref: [wikipedia.org]
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent?
They aren't native and unfortunately in Texas there aren't any natural predators to the fire ant (such as the ant eater).
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
I think he was saying that there must also be ants that are native to Texas and that these flies will damage their populations, in addition to the foreign fire ant populations.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, are there any native predators for these flies then? Or will it merely set off another even more vicious plague, one which attacks the native species instead of its intended target like most of these ill conceived schemes. If introducing one foreign pest is bad, introducing an entire food chain seems far worse to me.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Interesting)
An example of an invasive species is the alligator weed. [...] The alligator weed flea beetle and two other biological controls were released in Florida. Because of their success, Florida banned the use of herbicides to control alligator weed three years after the controls were introduced.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Insightful)
If only Slashdot provided some way to get more details, so you could read more about the plan instead of just assuming they did no kind of study and are totally winging it with no thought or planning whatsoever.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
I live near the University of Texas college and personally know many people involved in the research of these fly's. Many teams involved have all told me the same story; there is a toxin found exclusively inside the fire ant thorax that the fly's sense and are drawn to. They did not go into more detail that I could retain as I am not a biochemist, I simply felt I could contribute to the Slashdot community with personal knowledge that the article lacked.
The CSIRO would disagree with you (Score:5, Informative)
After a few horrendous early bad attempts (Cane Toads for example) Australia's CSIRO (the government's research arm) has gotten very very good [csiro.au] at importing biological controls to deal with other invasive species. They now have methodologies in place that let them do so on a regular basis.
Examples include the moth that was used to eradicate Prickly Pear [sciencedirect.com], the introducing of African dung beetles to curb an explosion in flies due to agriculture, and the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus [wikipedia.org] have all been very successful.
And they've introduced no less than 5 different species (3 weevils, 2 flies and a moth) to successfully control Onopordum Thistles [csiro.au] (although the program is ongoing).
I think the rule of thumb here is that you don't solve your invasive species problems by just wandering over to their source country, picking up the first highly visible superpredator that you find, and bringing it back. (Cane Toads, Mongooses, Wolves, etc)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
the first highly visible superpredator that you find, and bringing it back. (Cane Toads, Mongooses, Wolves, etc) ...and house cat...
Australia has a bad feline problem too. They were imported to deal with ever increasing rodent populations as a result of the growing agro and ranching economy. Thankfully the Aborigines were quick to add them to their diet.
It seems house cats have very poor endurance and can be stalked rather successfully. At the end of the hunt the Aborigines literally walk right up to it and
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Yes, I'm sure the aborigines are delighted at the introduction of the British prisoners ... blah blah blah ...
In the 40,000 years that Asians and Europeans advanced from paleolithic thru Iron and "culture" and technology (for example, sailing around the world), the aborigines were basically stagnant, never going beyond the stone age, developing agriculture, the wheel, etc. IOW, they were ripe for conquest by a dynamic, expanding culture.
Re:The CSIRO would disagree with you (Score:4, Funny)
(Fundamentally altering the environment and driving megafauna to extinction) worked for the aborigines.
Shame on you for not realizing that only White European Americans are allowed to be criticized. Brown People are allowed to do any fscking thing they want, because they are "closer to nature". And oppressed by the White Man, even 20,000 years ago.
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The flies, which are USDA -approved, do not attack native ants or species and have been introduced in other Gulf Coast states, Plowes said.
Not that you can put 100% confidence in the statement, but it seems they've done testing and found these flies ignore native species, which would mean it may, in fact, work. I doubt the scientists involved in this project are oblivious of previous failed attempts at messing with food chains.
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
Why were you modded +5 insightful? You're just wrong. I have to plant a wasp larva on you for trying to get away with this.
Go here and read about 20 years of successful biological control of pest insect species [ifad.org]
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I grew up in Texas... I dunno about other states, but this isn't the first time some goofballs in the state thought messing with the ecosystem by introducing outside life was a good idea. They put "elephant ear" plants in the water in San Marcos and the things took over.
Maybe Bill Engvall is right and we do need signs on these people... and a place to where we can export them :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that's not really true. Introduction of foreign predators to combat foreign invaders can work quite well. It can work so well that the foreign predators kill off the foreign invaders and then start munching on domestic prey.
I'm not saying the end result is better, just that the stated goal can be reached. Totally agree that the unintended consequences can be worse than not doing anything at all. Though, they're not always all bad, as is the case when the introduction of another foreign species fails c
Re:What stupidity. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Zombie RoHS Circuit Fungus (Score:5, Informative)
I, for one, fear the eventual introduction of the Taiwanese semiconductor beetle. Not only do its feeding tunnels encourage premature ion migration, it carries the fungus that causes bit rot.
Actually that fungus that causes bit rot is caused by the lack of lead in the solder that causes "whiskering". Lead kept the whiskering down in circuits; it's removal means now that many forms of electronics will simply "wear out" over time. The whiskers are little tiny cylinders of tin, a conductor, and they tend to grow on new circuits over time. http://archive.evaluationengineering.com/archive/articles/0606/0606lead-free.asp [evaluation...eering.com] has a good description and accompanying photomicrographs. Lead has been legislated out of solder by RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) acts in various countries under a variety of names.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There are probably some types of reasonably priced types of solder that either do not use tin or have tin and are alloyed in such a way that "tin whiskers" is not an issue. Otherwise, RoHS guidelines offer exemptions for certain applications if no other substance will work or is not economical. For instance, lead is still legal in CRT picture tubes and in the solder bumps between a silicon die and its flip-chip package substrate. However, the EU will not allow one to use lead because lead-free alternativ
Re: (Score:2)
No risk-free solution exists to stop future infestations except cessation of all inter-continental shippin
Re:What stupidity. (Score:5, Funny)
Unfortunately, I learned this fascinating fact after my visit to Texas. I was particularly saddened to discover that my girlfriend had been previously aware of it; but had decided to head off my enthusiasm for dubiously sensible electricity experiments by not telling me at the time.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently a big component of the attraction is that electric-fried fire ants smell really good to other fire ants
Re:I for one (Score:5, Funny)
I for one don't welcome your tired unfunny cliche use.
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Re:I want some zombie making flies (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, but the probability of her having a real vagina is 99,99%.
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Yes, biocontrol [wikipedia.org] has worked [wikipedia.org] a few times [wikipedia.org] before. [wikipedia.org]
Obviously, the screw-up results get more press than when an introduced species does work.
-Peter Petridish
And they dealt with the cane toads by importing .. (Score:4, Informative)
Reminds me of cane toads.
I understand that there was an additional import used to deal with Cane Toads that isn't in the wiki article. As I heard it:
There was a problem with cattle dung. The native dung beetles didn't dispose of it. So each cow flop would lie around for years, killing off a circle of grass several feet across. Cows make a LOT of flops, so this was a serious problem
So they imported dung beetles that WOULD break up and bury cow flops. But the Cane Toad would eat them, so they didn't take hold.
Finally they found a BIG dung beetle that would use cow flops. The cane toads would eat this one, too. But it was a big hardy bug. So it would dig its way out of the toad. Problem (and toad) solved. B-)
Unfortunately there apparently aren't enough cow flops to produce a big enough population of these booby-trap-beetles to wipe out the cane toads. So the toads are still a problem.
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And the best part is, if the cows get out of control, we've already got effective (and tasty) methods of dealing with that problem.
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