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Opossums Overrun Brooklyn, Fail To Eliminate Rats
__roo writes "In a bizarre case of life imitates the Simpsons, New York City officials introduced a population of opossums into Brooklyn parks and under the boardwalk at Coney Island, apparently convinced that the opossums would eat all of the rats in the borough and then conveniently die of starvation. Several years later, the opossums have not only failed to eliminate the rat epidemic from New York City, but they have thrived, turning into a sharp-toothed, foul-odored epidemic of their own."
Based on my experience, automobiles seem to work wonders on these things. Clearly, we just need to bring in more automobiles to New York.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Just tell the hipsters in Brooklyn that it's totally ironic to wear live Opossums on their heads. Kill two birds with one stone.
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Just bring in a colony of ferocious lions to eat the possums. When the lions become a problem, bring in gorillas to fight the lions. Then in winter the cold will kill the gorillas. Problem solved!
Did they learn nothing from the story of the old lady who swallowed a fly?
Poor thing. I hear she died.
Those who have telepathy have no need to RTFA.
Bring in alligators to eat the opossum, and then in the winter, they'll all freeze to death.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
We had to deal with a bold, insane, possibly rabid raccoon on the front porch last week. Believe me, it's scary when the wild animals decide they're not afraid of you at all.
We have these in Chicago; one died in my back yard. They're just like rats, but bigger. I can't believe anyone thought this was a good idea.
People think they can predict what their actions will do in real life situations and they totally miss it yet again.
Think about it in from a larger perspective. People are trying to control and manipulate society and economy as much as they are trying to manipulate the environment around them, and they are failing.
As much as people are failing in manipulating such simplest things, as the rat population in this story, imagine how much more failure there is in all other endeavors, for example when a gov't tries to manipulate economy by doing whatever it does, it's astounding that after all of the failures of such attempts in the former USSR or Cuba, the people still believe that gov't should be meddling with economy to try and correct the market instead of allowing the market to work by removing its violent power out of the market place.
Just like the failure of removing rats in this story, the people will fail to fix economy if they try to do so by gov't action.
Of-course in case of rats, it's still possible to do something, people can always poor more and more poisons around, which of-course will poison the environment but just may kill the rats, but in case of economy, it's hopeless. Get gov't hands out of it.
You can't handle the truth.
Life always find its way...
I'm not sure why they thought they would only eat rats, that makes no sense. Opossums eat pretty much anything. I mean they're not unlike just big rats themselves.
Really this sounds more like an urban legend than what really happened.
The Opossum's most effective predator is the Reticulated Gap-Toothed Yokel.
They're not liable to freeze to death, but they'll likely get killed off by wandering into traffic while looking up at them big tall buildings.
Seriously though, no one in their right mind down here would try to destroy a rat problem with a possum problem. Matter of fact, anyone that doesn't call them 'possum' doesn't really have any experience with the nasty things. The 'opossum' is about one of the nastiest animals I have ever had the displeasure of looking at. We get them in the garbage can every now and then... They get stuck and can't get out if there's not enough in the can for them to climb out. I usually just leave them there and let the trash man take care of them. I've poked at them a little bit and they just show their teeth and hiss. I've never seen them play dead. They're about the #2 roadkill item around here, after armadillo...
So New York, I hear that badgers eat possum... interested?
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
This story is giving me back a google text ad for "Alabama Pest Control" Yes, it got the location right.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
I call the big one Bitey!
Snakes. Lots of snakes.
All the Google News stories use the New York Post's article as their source. The NYP's article is sensationalist and light on details.
Full disclosure: I don't mind the opossums, skunks, and raccoons wandering my Toronto neighbourhood.
Maybe I have the benefit of experience, having lived in the south and all, but WHO WOULD BE SO F#$%ING STUPID AS TO USE POSSUMS FOR PEST CONTROL?
The damn things are like the mammalian answer to cockroaches. If they didn't have typical mammalian susceptibility to radiation, odds on them among southerners would be 10:1, their favor against roaches to survive a nuclear holocaust by eating the remaining roaches and being the last species standing.
does quoting an entomologist's description of opossums seem odd to anyone else?
I'm curious if anyone knows of any success stories of using this strategy with large animals.
It definitely seems to work on smaller scales, like buying praying mantis eggs to control garden pests. But I'm not sure I've ever heard of a success involving anything much bigger than that.
HA HA!
I know this is Idle, but still.
Newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post.
Tabloids: New York Post, Washington Times.
If this is a real story, is there a real paper carrying it somewhere?
Sort of, here's a United Press International feed: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/09/19/Immigrant-opossums-adapt-to-Brooklyn/UPI-90141284911712/
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
Anything can be solved with a BFG.
Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet and reproductive strategy make them successful colonizers and survivors in diverse locations and conditions.
If they had just read the first two paragraphs in wikipedia, they'd know possums don't just "die off" after there's no more rats.
Is it against city policy to simply throw down poison cheese into the gutters?
Should be one of that kind that could be natural enemy of rats or oppossums. And that way we give Australia the revenge chance for the rabbits or the frogs
Check out the comments on that New York Post article... I thought racism was over :(
As someone raised in Hawaii, I'm pretty shocked that people still think that introducing yet another new species into an ecosystem is going to solve any problems. I thought we all figured this out over 100 years ago?
I remember a line from "Cheers"
Norm: There's a dead possum in the stairwell... at least I hope it's a possum. I hate to think a rat could get that big...
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Whenever I read stuff like this, I am reminded of the simple-mindedness of Space Nutters and other whackjobs of the same ilk that think we'll colonize Mars.
They really think we have the technology and knowledge to do so; but we don't even know how stuff works down here!
I do believe that integrated pest management techniques are a valid approach, and that we are going to have a lot of trial and error before we come up with safe and effective approaches to using one species to control another like that. So the part about it failing doesn't really annoy me (and I live in Brooklyn). The part that kind of offends me is that this decision was made by a Community Board, rather than by trained professionals in the NYC or NYS DEPs.
Have we not learned from Australia?
We've given Australia plague after plague after plague. From rabbits to buffalo and from camels to toads. And they didn't even keep any captive Jewish slaves. Introducing new species as a way of killing a current one is rarely a good idea.
What is much, much more effective is introducing large numbers of sterile animals of the same group into the wild though.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
kudos.
Alligators now being brought in to deal with Opossum problem. Rats move to Harlem.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I had one die in my parking spot a few months ago. Maybe it ate a bad rat.
How many times has man transplanted a wild animal or plant from one place to another to try to eradicate a pest? How many times has it succeeded?
Earlier this year my SO and I went to St. John, USVI for vacation. We learned how they had a major rat problem on the island back in the 1800's. Some enterprising individual decided to introduce a bunch of mongoose (mongeese?) to the island to eradicate the rats. The only problem is that the rats are nocturnal and mongoose aren't, so they just ended up with a rat problem at night and a mongoose problem during the day...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possum#Introduction_into_New_Zealand Good luck with that, New York.
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
Even if they did elminate the rats we'd still have the same problem...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Possums are native to North America including NYC. They were probably eliminated in this part of NYC. Their re-introduction would probably have occurred naturally given time. So this whole article is superfluous, consider the source "NYPOST" a local rag, owned by FOX/Murdoch.
Time to move onto other articles.
Yes! Badgers with frigging lasers on their heads!
Opossums are marsupials!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Perhaps she'll die.
Facts take all of the premium out of arm waving - T. Reynolds
You're misunderstanding the situation. The Possums were not introduced to compete with rats; they were introduced to provide a steady source of protein for the homeless. Unfortunately, they neglected to teach the homeless how to catch 'em.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Wolverines!!!
I heard that when they play possum is when you pick them up by their tail and launch them into the shredding machine nearby,
if many of them can be fooled into playing possum, there would be no real work to be done except maybe
cleaning up afterwards the big mess left behind, but we can bring in a whole bunch of vultures to nest on the nearby island,
and then let them swoop in and eat away the carcasses....
Opossum's are particularly resistant to rabies due to a low body temperature+environment. That's just FUD sensationalism.
Don't badmouth the opossum like that.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Why is the asshole who keeps throwing out insults ("cowardly child-men", "ignorant rednecks") not being modded down?
BTW, I hope you get rabies. Beating an animal to death with a stick is far more cruel than shooting it.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
New York won't have a problem. There is already a natural predator of the opossum: taxicabs.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'm surprised they didn't go with mongooses - it worked so well in Hawaii:
http://www.susanscott.net/Oceanwatch2002/apr19-02.html
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Possums are said to eat rats but I'll bet it's way easier, in Brooklyn, for them to find food that doesn't bite back. Live and let live.
Nate
Check out the comments on the NY Post web site! They make us look like PhD candidates in philosophy.
how many times will the history books record such foolishness...bringing a new species to wipe-out another species...has that ever worked in recorded history?
anyways, if they thought bringing in possums was a good idea, maybe they'll go for this:
give all the homeless guns and instruct them on how to clean and cook a possum. old folks down here in the south used to eat them when times were tough.
Having RTFA and the comments on the FA, I'd say that targeting rats was the wrong effort. They need to breed an oppossum that eats trolls. Man, that was a pretty intense display. I'll never complain about /. trolls again.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
"Release the mongoose!!!"
Why aren't there more Simpsons quotes?
Any Ozarks farm boy could have pointed out the folly of this solution. Opossums are adept survivors. They can thrive in urban environments quite easily. All they need is a reliable food source, like garbage, and they'll breed like, uh, rats.
Proverbs 21:19
Ok so the rats eat the trash. There is so much trash that it has to be hauled away in trucks every day. Possum eat trash too, by the way. Why would the possum chase after a rat when it can just eat nice stationary trash? Humf... I wonder if the dead rat population has been reduced?
I once encountered some city kids who thought an opossum they saw hanging around a dumpster was a rat. This now has me wondering how many of those "rats the size of small dogs" stories I've heard in the past were just mistaken identity. PS. I'm from the land of Pogo where opossums are not just a wild animal - they can be dinner!
Mama, I got 'dem ole cosmic blues again.
-Nelson Muntz
www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
The whole idea is almost mind-bogglingly dumb. Where did they get the idea that possums would eat rats? They mostly eat carrion and bugs.
Maybe for their next trick they can introduce a herd of cows... you know, to eat the possums.
What idiot would bring in possums to catch rats? Possums are herbivores.
Skunks with fricking lasers!
They're pretty dumb, and they're pretty nasty. One got into a fight with my three dogs a few weeks ago. It ended with a late night trip to the emergency vet for one of them. I can't imagine it ended well for the opossum, but it was dark and I couldn't really see the outcome of the fight, I could only hear it.
Lesson #1 in life... if you hear a thump and three angry dogs start barking, DO NOT run straight towards them.
To prove to the possum that it could be done.
That's what air rifles are for. .410 shotguns are for. Effective range about 20-25 yards max.
And also what
Just bring in sharks to eat the possums. (And please, no laser jokes. That would undermine the seriousness of my suggestion.)
Table-ized A.I.
It is astounding that these northern city types fear such trivial critters as possums. I'll bet you guys are a real hoot with a rattler or a boar or a little black bear. Southerners have been known to cook all three and possums as well for supper.
Nuff said!
There's a really simple solution to this problem - stop feeding the homeless.
... they don't freaking eat rats! So why the hell would you import them to deal with your rat problem?
They could have asked anybody from New Zealand about possums to find out how stupid an idea this is. Or they could have asked anyone from the north of Australia about cane toads to get the same sort of answer.
New York City is one of the two places in the United States that outlaws ferrets (the other being California, but that is changing). And ferrets are great ratters and mousers. They were widely bred and kept here in the US prior to WW II, for just that purpose: keeping down the mice and rats at farms. And they also make great pets.
Further, NOWHERE in the Western Hemisphere are there any feral colonies of the domestic variety of ferret. They just don't survive well here outside of captivity.
So New York, in its "infinite wisdom" (pardon the sarcasm), outlaws ferrets but imports possums, which ARE known to breed in the wild and form feral colonies.
Yet another reason I don't live in New York. Its leadership has made many decisions of this quality.
I grew up on the North Shore of Queens. Well back in the 1970's there was already a huge population of "possums" back then,
This sounds to me like a totally uninformed city board member speaking up about something he knows absolutely nothing about.
Since the wildlife of the island is mostly unknown to most city folk, he couldn't fathom that they existed there naturally.
The reason the sanitation dept nor the health department knows nothing of the "possum drop" is because it only happened as a figment of the politician's mind.
As crazy as city politics is there is no chance they would have introduced possums as rat control. Ask any Parks Dept employee or any nature center on the island and this will be laughed at.
conventional wisdom = No wildlife could exist anywhere in the city without human introduction. Guess again.
Sounded just like that possum you described. Only, this gecko arrived and "departed" years before your kind possumy incident.
'cept, I asked this gecko if it had "Garbage Disposal Unit Accident-insurance", and it looked at me with a face like he just got out of the waiting-lines of the State Unemployment office.
Re-incarnation, perhaps?
I hear that the possums vote republican.
Take THAT you damn Yankees!
Lately, the last couple summers, I've seen a lot of opossums, now i know why.
Last summer, a kitten was born on my door step and i saw its mother fighting with a huge opossum over its survival.
The fight was epic, they were knocking over trash cans, hurdling each other 3ft into the air.
I should've made a video.
Honestly, if they could lower the feral cat population, that would also be a service.
I hate the smell of cat poopy.
Worst fecal smell ever!!!
But the plan doesn't seem to be working at all.
Yesterday i saw an opossum on the subway tracks with his head 3ft apart from his body, obviously cut off by a moving train, but this was at an above ground station in brooklyn.
I rarely see them in the subway system.
I usually see small brown mice or huge rats, especially in the underground stations in manhattan.
I also see tons of small brown mice in the parks of downtown manhattan, especially union sq.
I see opossum on the beach at night.
We need to find a predator that hunts/eats cats,mice,rats, and opossum but that doesnt multiply rapidly.
We need more chinese takeout spots and starving rednecks haha
If they would eat mosquitos too... would be nice.
This is exactly the same as inviting a friend over for dinner and he brings hs family and then the family decides to stay and they end up multiplying.
Or, to be specific its like expecting politicians to be honest.
Hint it just does not work, that is why we need term limits or somehow implanting an "honest" chip in them.
There are several variations of this of course like introducing mamals to a south sea island. They end up eating the species you are trying to control in the first place.
Humans will never understand that introducing a foriegn predator into an existing eco system will call (not probably) massive, unforeseen problems.
Simply stop selling and sending food to New York. When people begin starving, the most resourceful will look for food in trash. When they meet competition from the pesky critters, they'll kill them and even feed on them. Finally, when the possum problem is controlled, they can send food back into New York. Next, they can finally start thinking about how to deal with the rat problem appropriately!
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