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Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

theguardian.com

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Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#41

Post by jhgb »

bell-cot wrote: post #24
at_a_remove wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes have very weird and destructive thoughts, but I have often wondered if it were possible to take thermite and pack it, make it stable and rigid somehow, enough that it could be made into a long rod, like rebar, suitable for pounding into the earth. Then you surround your nest or whatever with a bunch of rods, run one through the middle, set them alight and let them just burn down however many yards. Thirty…

Outside of sci-fi and some very arid environments, rapid extreme heating of large quantities of soil will produce big steam explosions. Which might spread some relatively unheated, termite-laden clods of earth over a wide area. In a different context (limited quantities of soil with extremely heavy chemical contamination), I have seen serious proposals to drive heavy electrodes deep into the soil, gradually apply ver…

How about microwaves? If the soil is moist, perhaps microwaving the area could sterilize it thermally. Slower rate of heating should prevent explosions.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#42

Post by throwawaylinux »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #40
throwawaylinux wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand how what you wrote addresses my comment. I listed some groups who might be motivated to do it, and gave an example of somewhat similar private groups organizing to take action that collectively benefit their member groups with industry associations that are not a government.

> Granted, but who is going to spearhead such an effort?

I suppose this is a rhetorical question, which does not help me understand your point of view. Can you just explain why for example a home insurance industry group (or any of the other interested groups) would not organize to deal with this problem in the absence of government action?

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#43

Post by prawn »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #33
whyenot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I visited Flinders Island in South Australia a few months ago. It's fairly isolated but they have a mouse/rat/cat population they are working to eradicate at great expense. Mice supposedly last arrived in the tent bags of visiting campers. Which of course made me wonder if that could happen again quite easily with mice stowed aboard an another visiting boat, etc.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#44

Post by bpodgursky »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #33
whyenot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It's actually fascinating to me that any individual with a grudge against England could singlehandedly make termites endemic, spreading them to a few hundred sites with basically 0 chance of being caught, but nobody ever bothers.

(same with zebra mussels, asian carp, etc etc in the US)

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#45

Post by SllX »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #40
throwawaylinux wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s called self-government, which is not merely electing some mooks to send to some distant capital to professionally practice legislation (which is all they will ever do in their time there, and so will always be seeking to innovate in this space for good or for ill). It’s also taking an interest in you and yours and cooperating with your neighbors to resolve common issues, and where and when you have conflicting interests, resolving those disputes, privately, or in a court of Law if that is not possible, only taking to legislatures as a last resort.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#46

Post by nextaccountic »

SllX wrote: post #45
dclowd9901 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s called self-government, which is not merely electing some mooks to send to some distant capital to professionally practice legislation (which is all they will ever do in their time there, and so will always be seeking to innovate in this space for good or for ill). It’s also taking an interest in you and yours and cooperating with your neighbors to resolve common issues, and where and when you have conflicting i…

This is how local governments should be run. Not just elect officials, but have the citizens participate in the day-to-day affairs.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#47

Post by fisherjeff »

throwawaylinux wrote: post #42
dclowd9901 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand how what you wrote addresses my comment. I listed some groups who might be motivated to do it, and gave an example of somewhat similar private groups organizing to take action that collectively benefit their member groups with industry associations that are not a government. > Granted, but who is going to spearhead such an effort? I suppose this is a rhetorical question, which does not help me unde…

Home insurers have three options, as I see it:

1) Pay for a super expensive termite remediation on someone’s property in hopes that it will guarantee that other customers’ properties won’t get termites

2) Raise premiums to account for termite infestation risk

3) Deny termite damage claims

There’s only one thing on that list I can’t imagine them doing

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#48

Post by akie »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #35

It'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…

> It's nice that a government program actually ever solved the problem it was meant to address and shut down

This site can be so exhausting. Government is not necessarily the enemy. Stop seeing everything through those glasses, please. Government is the organization we created to do things together. That's all it is. Stop implying that it's always the enemy and that everything the government does is bound to end in failure.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#49

Post by nanna »

Pop trivia: up the road from Saunton is a massive stretch of golden beach called Saunton Sands. Its shallow incline makes it perfect for new surfers, and it's breadth made it perfect for long walks - as Robbie Williams did in the video for Angels where he end up getting attacked by a helicopter.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=luwAMFcc2f8

So now you know.

Re: Devon calls victory in 27-year war on termites

#50

Post by d78dehrg »

SllX wrote: post #45
dclowd9901 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s called self-government, which is not merely electing some mooks to send to some distant capital to professionally practice legislation (which is all they will ever do in their time there, and so will always be seeking to innovate in this space for good or for ill). It’s also taking an interest in you and yours and cooperating with your neighbors to resolve common issues, and where and when you have conflicting i…

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