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15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

theguardian.com

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Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#21

Post by justinclift »

stonogo wrote: post #15
philiplu wrote: post #9

Cliff Mass, a meteorology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle blogged about this last Friday[1]. There's a comment[2] from someone in the area who notes that some of those tumbleweeds were likely radioactive, since this is downwind of the Hanford Site[3], a relic from the Manhattan Project and later Cold War which has been leaking radioactive waste for decades. [1] https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020…

Every time this happens, people start telling these stories. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-15-me-51273... Out of approximately 10k tumblweeds tested per year, approximately 20 per year are found to be radioactive, for values of radioactive approximating one CT scan. So even if you drag a geiger counter out there to find a hot one, then cuddle it for a while, it isn't as interesting as the campfire…

Guessing the mutation rate in the seeds from the radioactive ones will be higher than normal?

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#22

Post by cmrdporcupine »

seszett wrote: post #8
teslabox wrote: post #3

I heard tumbleweeds are an invasive species. Wikipedia seems to confirm: "Kali tragus [...] is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along. It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota, perhaps about 1870. It now is a noxious weed throughout North America, dominating disturbed habit…

Argentine ants are well known for having colonised Europe and largely eradicated the local species of ants. Phylloxera almost killed the French wine industry when it arrived in Europe. American turtles (called "Florida turtles" in French, not sure of their English name) and nutria are also invasive species in Europe, but those were initially introduced on purpose.

Not just phylloxera but the various fungi species that create powdery and downy mildew, among other illnesses for which Vitis vinifera has no natural resistance. And therefore Europeans must now spray fungicides at a level they never had to before.

North America is the centre of diversity and likely origin of the vitis genus, and so has evolved pest resistance that the isolated Eurasian vitis vinifera/sylvestris has not.

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#25

Post by dsfyu404ed »

LockAndLol wrote: post #16
alexott wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example, Racoons: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-overrun...

> Some residents fight back with steel traps or poisonous gas. Some even eat the comical pests, which are said to taste best marinated with celeriac and onions. That's a nice "fuck you" to racoons . Free food.

I wonder where on the social ladder does eating 'coon fall over there? Is it somewhat up there like most things hunting/fishing related are? (because hunting/fishing/trapping your own meat was generally something the landed gentry did for recreation)

I really hope it's not in the bottom half just because of how uncomfortable that would make certain Americans.

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#26

Post by dsfyu404ed »

winrid wrote: post #4
tus88 wrote: post #2

Somehow I don't think that truck is "trapped".

Probably not. But also probably unwise to drive if you can't see...

He could probably see just fine when he stopped. That picture is taken hours later after many tumbleweeds have piled up to the point of it becoming a newsworthy event. I think being reluctant to crunch the stopped Prius (or whatever) in front of him is why he doesn't proceed.

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#27

Post by jcadam »

I developed an allergy to tumbleweed whilst living in Colorado. So I moved to the east coast.

Ok, it wasn't just because of the tumbleweeds.

The sound a tumbleweed makes when it gets caught in your undercarriage and drug down the highway is... annoying. Annoying enough I'd sometimes pull over to remove them (particularly if I'd collected more than one). Couldn't imagine being buried in them :(

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#28

Post by swarnie_ »

Scarblac wrote: post #6
teslabox wrote: post #3

I heard tumbleweeds are an invasive species. Wikipedia seems to confirm: "Kali tragus [...] is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along. It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota, perhaps about 1870. It now is a noxious weed throughout North America, dominating disturbed habit…

In the Netherlands at least, an American species of freshwater crayfish has almost completely replaced the native species and its ecosystem is unprepared for it. And grey squirrels in the UK, of course. There must be more.

Similar situation in the UK, we used to haul crayfish out of our sailing lake each year by the boatload.

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#29

Post by smackay »

Scarblac wrote: post #6
teslabox wrote: post #3

I heard tumbleweeds are an invasive species. Wikipedia seems to confirm: "Kali tragus [...] is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along. It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota, perhaps about 1870. It now is a noxious weed throughout North America, dominating disturbed habit…

In the Netherlands at least, an American species of freshwater crayfish has almost completely replaced the native species and its ecosystem is unprepared for it. And grey squirrels in the UK, of course. There must be more.

American freshwater crayfish infest all the rice fields here in Portugal. They cause a lot of damage to irrigation and drainage ditches but the number of things that eat them is enormous. It's probably the major reason White Storks here no longer migrate to Africa in the winter. At Vila Franca de Xira, near Lisboa, when the rice is harvested in October, you can see hundreds of thousands of ibis, herons, gulls, flamingos, egrets, spoonbills, storks, waders and everything else you can think of eating crayfish of all sizes.

Re: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure

#30

Post by exhilaration »

teslabox wrote: post #3

I heard tumbleweeds are an invasive species. Wikipedia seems to confirm: "Kali tragus [...] is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along. It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota, perhaps about 1870. It now is a noxious weed throughout North America, dominating disturbed habit…

Another example: late blight, the mold that attacks tomatoes, potatoes, and a few other plants originated in the Americas and "was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish, and the 1846 Highland potato famines", according to Wikipedia.

Side note: tomatoes and potatoes also originated in the Americas so it's only natural that their associated diseases came from the same region.

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