LOL!
Make sure you add Giant Hog Weed and also Wild Parsnip to your collection! ;)
Hog weed is showing up here in Zone 5 in the ditches and the Wild Parsnip will be right behind it.
Evil, EVIL plants!
Sometimes I total wonder at God’s creations. I mean, REALLY? We NEED snakes? We NEED Mosquitoes? NEEDED Hog Weed, Stinging Nettle and Wild Parsnip? And Grasshoppers? Ugh!
Why are you testing me, God? ;)
Well, I can’t speak to all of those, but, snakes eat a LOT of rodents, and grasshoppers make good bait for panfish - big hoppers even work for bass: One of the biggest bass I ever caught was successfully tempted with a big katydid. Big tomato hornworms are great bait too, tho’ I’d definitely rather not have that opportunity.
Well....this is a fallen world. Here are examples of AI assisted videos discussing invasive species, something of a double fall!
"America Spent $12.5 Billion Fighting the Emerald Ash Borer. The Woodpeckers Did It For Free"
(!!Cut to the chase summary....There are 2 varieties of woodpecker that hammer through the bark and eat the larvae, nuthatch that will look for and eat the larvae, and a native fly with a long ovadepositor that has learned to parasitize their lavae. Large areas have experienced destruction of ash groves. Ash trees are recovering somewhat now that native species are beginning to control the borer. )
(I would link to the English folk song "The Ash Grove" which my mother used to sing to me, but it would not be suitible in this context.)
(!!Cut to the chase summary; Sturgeon and Drum can crush and eat the shells, Whitefish eat the floating larvae and young before they get shells. Downside...the zebras clean the water and accumulate toxins and heavy metals in their bodies which transfers to the fish. So bad if you like to eat whitefish. I think there is one other thing attacking them. Do not recall what it is.)
They have another you tube I did not watch. Invasive flying catfish. Allegator gar are starting to use them as a food source. Do a search if interested.
A fallen world with fallen people and one redeemer!