Alien invasion … excavation revealing hidden secrets … threatening to destroy middle England … government scientists hell bent on eradication …
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_and_the_Pit_(film...
Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#32>“What’s the moral of the story?” he asked. “You can make up your own, but for me, this is public service in its finest form – unseen, largely unknown and rarely heralded – but done with selfless dedication year after year simply because of what would happen to the rest of us if it wasn’t.”
This is my big takeaway, I know a lot of people are against government projects. But in this case especially, where is the profit motive to fix this problem? I can't see any other solution than long term investment in the long term interest of the country. What other entity could ensure long term commitment to such an unprofitable project?
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#33I feel like news reports of invasive species usually end up with the invaders becoming endemic. Nice to see a successful eradication for once!
Yes, but it also demonstrates how difficult complete eradication of invasive species actually is. In this case, there was only a single location, and eradication still took decades and large amounts of money. Now imagine if there had been colonies at several different locations. Most invasive species are only noticed when they are much more established and complete eradication is no longer an effective strategy.
And it just takes another crate from a country where they exist to have to start over again...
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The British government is normally very judicious with eminent domain and will destroy your home if it is causing an unpleasant wind diversion for some species of rare seagull." Oh no they won't! Could you provide some more details please.
One recalls the recent story where an impostor sold a man's house without his consent and the British government was just "sorry, we signed the papers, it belongs to him now"
The UK govt doesn't generally get involved in house sales. That sounds like a tale of good old fashioned fraud and I think I know the one you are on about - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662
The Police response looks a bit shit to start with but nothing to do with the government - Welsh or British.
If you are going to have a go at this sort of nonsense then you need to sound credible. You are not going to bring down civilisation as we know it with a comment like that.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#35It's nice that a government program actually ever solved the problem it was meant to address and shut down, but I hope they didn't do it too soon:
> After no signs of termite activity were detected for the past 10 years, the Saunton termite colony has officially been declared dead
> There have been false dawns before in this battle of the beasties. Going into the new millennium there were no sightings of the termites for nine years. Then their beadlike antennae were again spotted rooting around in the soil, resulting in the eradication and monitoring programme being extended repeatedly until this year.
Seems like the same distribution that produced a result after nine years could produce one after ten. Hopefully they got them all the first time.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#36>“What’s the moral of the story?” he asked. “You can make up your own, but for me, this is public service in its finest form – unseen, largely unknown and rarely heralded – but done with selfless dedication year after year simply because of what would happen to the rest of us if it wasn’t.” This is my big takeaway, I know a lot of people are against government projects. But in this case especially, where is the profi…
The owners of these two properties, many of the home owners around the country, many commercial and other building owners, as well as the building and insurance industries all have possible profit motives.
I'm not going to argue whether government is better or worse here, but it's actually not uncommon in the agricultural industry for similar kind of action being taken against invasive pests that is led by producers' associations which are private organizations. Including very long term action for example there are cases of land being bought up so as to cease farming activity on it indefinitely to prevent pest spread (e.g., with Panama disease in some places).
Arguably it also should not have depended on generosity or public service to deal with the problem, the land owners should have been fairly compensated.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#37For that long and "bloody-minded" an eradication effort, in so small an area (100m long, 30m deep) - it seems like it'd have been far quicker and cheaper to (say) saturate the ground with liquid nitrogen. (Assuming that the termites would all either freeze, or die for lack of oxygen.)
That sounds quite convincing until you actually try to do it 8) Liquid N is bloody cold until it hits the environment (for want of a better word). Initially I thought of going in with boiling water but that suffers from the same problem - that there bloody equilibrium thingie.
I'd also look into something like liquid grout. You use that (I'm a Civ Eng grad, IT company owner) to stabilize ground. That depends a lot on the rock involved. North Devon and sandy soil mentioned so it will be tricky.
I think it could have been done quicker but you have to bear in mind that people's houses are on top and the council's and other groups would have worried about that and a lot of other factors.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#38Do governments typically provide reimbursement to the household for holding their house hostage for over 27 years? Or did the government just declared they can't and forced the homeowners cooperation?
It's not clear from the article.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#39For that long and "bloody-minded" an eradication effort, in so small an area (100m long, 30m deep) - it seems like it'd have been far quicker and cheaper to (say) saturate the ground with liquid nitrogen. (Assuming that the termites would all either freeze, or die for lack of oxygen.)
That sounds quite convincing until you actually try to do it 8) Liquid N is bloody cold until it hits the environment (for want of a better word). Initially I thought of going in with boiling water but that suffers from the same problem - that there bloody equilibrium thingie. I'd also look into something like liquid grout. You use that (I'm a Civ Eng grad, IT company owner) to stabilize ground. That depends a lot on…
Neither the LN nor the boiling water would need to literally saturate the soil. Nor reach thermal equilibrium (-196C for LN, 100C for boiling water.) So long as conditions (temperature, O2 availability, etc.) in every cc of the targeted volume were nicely beyond what any termite could survive, that'd be enough.
LN would plausibly 1) create a long-lived hypoxic zone, and 2) have minimal effects on the groundwater, so I hand-waved that idea. Your boiling water would probably work through the "mud" they might use to line tunnels and their nest far quicker.
Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites
#40>“What’s the moral of the story?” he asked. “You can make up your own, but for me, this is public service in its finest form – unseen, largely unknown and rarely heralded – but done with selfless dedication year after year simply because of what would happen to the rest of us if it wasn’t.” This is my big takeaway, I know a lot of people are against government projects. But in this case especially, where is the profi…
The owners of these two properties, many of the home owners around the country, many commercial and other building owners, as well as the building and insurance industries all have possible profit motives. I'm not going to argue whether government is better or worse here, but it's actually not uncommon in the agricultural industry for similar kind of action being taken against invasive pests that is led by producers'…
Granted, but who is going to spearhead such an effort? Organize people, resources, money etc. I mean, at some point, such an endeavor, private or public, is so close to quacking like government, you might as well just call it government.