You probably know about Cane Toads. They were imported into Australia in the '30s to control Cane Sugar Beetles.

Bad move.

They multiplied and spread all over the continent. In some parts of Oz during the right season you can't drive down a road without squishing thousands of them. They're also toxic, a defense mechanism to protect them against predators, but a boon to people who like to lick their skins to get high.

Ugh.

The new study says they are evolving longer legs, but it's mostly interesting for quotes like "biological pest control projects ... generally take for granted that carefully studied animals introduced to fight off invasive species can not evolve into something troublesome."

Oops! Scientists are idiots.

Kudzu? Zebra mussels? Nile perch?

SHIT! Kudzu was introduced? Whoa!! LOL.

Metachat was introduced into the internet wild to control pests. So far so good.

In Sweden they created synthetic wolf piss. They figured it could be used around highways, to keep Elk and Deer away from the roads.

Great idea right?

Well, sure, except there aren't that many wolves around these days, so they have large areas as their turf. Elk and deer know this, so the scent f wof piss does not translate to "Stay away!!" but rather "wolf was just here marking his hood, he'll be gone for ages marking the rest. It's perfectly safe here."

The result was that deer and elk were magically attracted to the higways. SCREEeeech*splat* Oh great.

stoats introduced into NZ to control the rabbits (that were previously introduced to deleterious results). yeah, not so good for the native birds.

Oops! Scientists are idiots.

Scientists maybe were "idiots" nearly 100 years ago when this sort of thing was common. And it's often not scientists doing the introducing. See the farmers who illegally introduced rabbit calicivirus into NZ. Or illegal introduction of myxomatosis.

Oh god, there are so many.

Japanese rose beetles, running bamboo, pigeons, pigs (Hawaii)... I'd google for me but it's too depressing.

Starlings who were introduced by a kind of charming nutjob who wanted America to have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare. Taking literature too, well, literally, can kill off bluebirds. Do not play author!

Well, OMG bunnies were introduced to Oz -- several times, as the first four or so introductions died out. Now, of course, Oz has spent millions if not billions trying to eradicate bunnies.

Scientists maybe were "idiots" nearly 100 years ago when this sort of thing was common. And it's often not scientists doing the introducing.

Sorry I generalized, gaspode.

Zebra mussels weren't deliberately introduced- they got carried into the great lakes in the ballast water of ships and released by accident. Same thing for brown tree snakes in Guam- they rode over in the wheel wells of airplanes, and now Guam has no birds.

And yeah, it was farmers, not scientists, who introduced kudzu in the south. They used it as ground cover. (And it worked beyond their wildest dreams.)

Well, there are plenty of species that were introduced for sport, or to make fences, or to be pretty, but I don't think that's what shane was asking.

heh, I'm just a sensitive scientist, shane.

(it's NOT OK for me to be so prickly!)

Kudzu root supposedly has magical hangover curing qualities. I have never had the nerve to try it, though, although there's plenty of the raw material around.

The plant you all call Kudzu is commonly used for culinary purposes over here, and I think they make a special paper from it too.

Kudzu root supposedly has magical hangover curing qualities.

I'd be afraid to try it, afraid it might start growing out of my gut until I look like Stephen King in that old movie Creepshow ;-)

No, really gaspode, I shouldn't disparage scientists. The bad ones don't care and the good ones REALLY don't deserve it.

Humans.

African killer bees were introduced into North America. Purple loosestrife was sold by nurseries, and now chokes wetlands in the Eastern US.

The bees were an accident, I'm pretty sure. They were breeding them on purpose, but a queen got out when she wasn't supposed to. Or so the story goes.