Here are a few of the most horrific Invasive species on Earth!
6 - Snakehead Fish
A fish with shark-like teeth and the ability to walk on land probably sounds like the things
of nightmares.
But the Northern Snakehead is all too real.
Just ask Maryland natives who discovered the fish in a pond in 2002, when they quickly
annihilated the other species in the pond.
Native to Asia and Africa, Snakeheads have spread to waters all over the globe over the
past century.
This is bad, because when they’re introduced to unnatural habitats, they have no natural
predator and basically have free reign to eat whatever they feel like, which can really
throw the ecosystem out of order.
Dubbed “Fishzilla” by National Geographic, this freak-like fish can survive on land for
up to 4 days, and the average female can produce about 150,000 offspring during her life, making
the population impossible to control.
The fish were legally imported into the States to display in aquariums and to eat, since
they look kinda cool and they’re considered a popular dish in Asia.
But their presence has really disrupted fishing trade as their population has spread all across
the Potomac River System.
They’ve even been spotted in Florida, North Carolina, California, Hawaii, Rhode Island
and Massachusetts.
So you can see why a fishermen in the Americas might hate these things so much.
That’s why it’s now illegal to own live Snakeheads in most U.S states who consider
them to be a destructive invasive species.
The real question is, how has there not been a really bad B-movie made about this?
If Sharknado gets five movies, why hasn’t there been a film called “The Invasion of
Fishzilla?”
Fish that can live on land, bite the crap out of you and mess up your ecosystem?
C’mon let’s make this happen!!
5 - The Cane Toad
Although the Cane Toad is native to the Americas, it has spread across island nations in the
Caribbean and Oceania, and has even managed to weasel its way up into Northern Australia.
By no stretch of the definition is this an awesome thing.
As an invasive species, Cane Toads often wreak havoc on native species when they are first
introduced to a new ecosystem.
In the more than 20 countries the cane toad have “invaded”, many of the countries
saw a pretty serious decline in biodiversity.
In Australia for example, after these pesky toads moved on in, the populations of Northern
Quolls, which is a tiny little creature that roams the Northern Territory of Australia,
were greatly reduced.
They’ve been in rapid decline thanks to the Cane Toads invading their territory, and
are currently classified as an “endangered species.”
Merten’s Water Monitors, a small lizard that calls Australia home, have also seen
a huge decline in their ranks thank to these annoying toads.
Cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 in an attempt to control
the native grey-backed cane beetle and Frenchi beetle.
These beetles are native to Australia and they’re detrimental to sugar cane crops,
which are a major source of income for Australia.
Cane toads were to replace the use of pesticides such as arsenic and copper.
The cane toads bred immediately in captivity, and by August 1935 more than 102 young toads
were released.
Since their release, toads have rapidly multiplied in population and now number over 200 million
and have been known to spread diseases affecting local biodiversity!
Unfortunately, the introduction of the toads has not only caused large environmental detriment,
but the toads didn’t do much to stop the beetles, but instead became pests themselves.
Let’s just say it didn’t work out too well to say the least.
4 - European Starling
While Alfred Hitchcock got some people really freaked out by birds, on the surface, an army
of songbirds doesn’t really sound all that bad, which is probably why Eugene Schieffelin
figured he’d release 60 of them into Central Park in 1890.
As their name would suggest, they’re native to Europe, not the US.
A drug manufacturer and literary fanatic, Schieffelin figured he’d introduce every
bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s work to North America.
Can I get some of whatever THIS guy was smoking?
Anyways, thanks to a very brief mention of the bird in Henry the VI, the 60 European
Starlings that were first let loose in Central Park have ballooned into 150 million.
60 to 150 million in around 120 years, wow.
European starlings have gone on to cause upwards of $800 million in crop damage each year.
Of course the intentions here were pretty innocent.
I mean, many people have found weird ways to pay homage to their favorite artists.
And unless you’re a biology expert or something, how would you know that they would grow like
that?
And their population has spread all over the world to something like 310 million, because
european starlings had been imported to different because of their ability to control pests,
pollinate crops and perform a handful of other functions.
However, when introduced to a new ecosystem, european starlings can cause pandemonium.
Common starlings can eat and damage fruit in orchards such as grapes, peaches, and olives.
They may also eat animal feed and distribute seeds through their droppings.
In eastern Australia, weeds such as bridal creeper, blackberry and boneseed are thought
to have been spread by common starlings.
Starlings' droppings can contain a fungus which causes histoplasmosis in humans, which
is a type of lung infection.
At roosting sites this fungus can thrive in accumulated droppings.
There are a number of other infectious diseases that can potentially be transmitted by common
starlings to humans.
The large size of flocks can also cause problems.
Common starlings may be sucked into aircraft jet engines, one of the worst instances of
this being an incident in Boston in 1960, when sixty-two people died after a turboprop
airliner flew into a flock and plummeted into the sea at Winthrop Harbor.
So yeahhhhh, these guys can for sure be a pretty serious problem.
3 - Burmese Python
They’re one of the largest snakes on the planet, sometimes reaching an astonishing
18 feet in length.
Armed with razor sharp teeth and the ability to suffocate large prey such as deer, pigs
and goats, pythons are pretty damn scary.
Because their population has skyrocketed in the Florida everglades, Burmese Pythons are
considered to be an invasive species.
By some estimates, more than 1,300 of these giant snakes roam the woods of Florida.
Initially they were sold to Americans as exotic pets, but because they’re often released
into the wild, their population has grown incredibly large.
In 2012, the U.S Department of the Interior banned the importation of Burmese Pythons
because of the devastating effect they’ve been having on South Florida's ecosystem.
For example, in Florida, they’re known to be opportunistic predators, often wrangling
up foxes, rabbits, possums, white tailed deer, panther and racoons.
Without a predator to keep them in check, they treat the Everglades as their own personal
buffet and all of these populations are thought to have been dramatically impacted by the
snake's presence in Florida.
Since they're native to parts of Southeast Asia, as their having the name “Burmese”
in the name would suggest, they can only survive in climates similar to that.
That’s why they have been thriving in Florida.
So while it’s unlikely that they’ll spread across the U.S, they’re still causing mayhem
in Florida.
2 - Redback Spiders
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Here’s the thing about Redback Spiders.
On top of being really invasive, they’re also super poisonous.
Which really isn’t a great combination.
Their painful bite has earned them a fearsome reputation in Australia, where natives consider
them to be among the most dangerous of spiders.
During the 1980’s, Brisbane noticed a huge influx of these dangerous spiders.
Redbacks are known to prefer a dry climate, which is weird, because Brisbane sports a
pretty moist, subtropical climate.
But, the 80’s saw a more dry climate in Brisbane, which allowed the redback population
to grow tremendously.
This was a problem, because Redbacks prefer to live where humans do.
The garden, the woodshed, the attic, the basement, window seals, patio furniture, you name it,
and Redbacks probably will try to make it their home.
And the problem seems to be a recurring one, as Brisbane and really Queensland as a whole
is currently experiencing another outbreak of Redbacks.
The intense summer heat wave is likely the cause for the population explosion, much to
the chagrin of Brisbane natives.
These guys bite around 2000 people each year.
Their bites can really screw up your day if you’re unlucky enough to be attacked.
The weird thing is, the bites often go unnoticed at first, which is bad because that allows
the venom to spread.
Eventually the pain becomes really intense, which often disrupts anyone’s day-to-day
activities.
Nausea, vomiting, headaches, and lethargy are staple side effects of a redback bite.
Though not typically fatal, there was recently an extreme case.
Take the Burleigh family, for instance.
They tragically lost their 22 year old son Jayden to a redback bite in April of 2016.
Jayden landed in the hospital after being bitten by a spider, and was released four
days later with antibiotics.
However, an abscess had formed under his arm which infected his glands.
That’s what was believed to have killed him two days after leaving the hospital.
To make matters worse, Jayden’s 17-year old brother had been killed eight months earlier
in a car wreck.
Ah…..talk about tragedy.
As awful as his death was, Jayden is the first person to die from such a bite in more than
60 years.
Ever since the introduction of an effective antivenom, most people have been able to survive
the bites.
Redback spiders even seem to be spreading outside of Australia.
In 2014, Redbacks were found in Tokyo for the first time ever.
This could have been pretty awful since Japan wasn’t ready to treat an outbreak in bites.
While this invasion didn’t seem to lead to any real problems, it does prove troublesome.
Who knows where they may end up next.
With the influx of Redbacks it seems likely that there will be more and more spider bites.
The BBC reported that a man was bitten on the p*nis by one the annoying spiders when
he was using a portable bathroom.
Um…….yeah, I think that’s on any guy’s list of worst things that can happen.
As god awful as that was, he survived the ordeal after going to the hospital.
Though he was reported to experience lots of sweating, vomiting and nausea, he was later
released in stable condition with hopefully fully functioning equipment and I assume a
newfound appreciation for anti-venom.
1 - Black Rats
Since black rats were thought to be an accomplice in the spread of the Black Death, which killed
around 100 million people in Europe during the 14th century, one could argue they’re
among the worst invasive species of all time.
In fact, they may just take the cake.
One of the more widely accepted theories as to how the black death, or also known as the
bubonic plague, spread was that fleas carrying the plague latched onto black rats, who were
pretty common on merchant ships, and helped spread the plague all across Europe.
We’ve all heard about the black death, and we know that it wiped out a huge portion of
the world’s population.
It wasn’t until the 17th century and the industrial revolution that the population
recovered.
But what was the plague actually like?
I have no clue, but I can only guess that it sucked.
Those infected would grow buboes which cause lymph nodes to swell up, sometimes to the
size of apples, according to historical accounts.
These buboes would often ooze pus and bleed when they popped or opened.
Black spots would form all over the body which was likely the result of dead flesh (hence
the name black death.)
People would then develop really bad fevers and start vomiting blood.
In most cases, those infected wouldn't last even a week.
At the time, they figured the plague was spread airborne.
They thought it was simply bad air.
The concept of hygiene was a pretty foreign concept, which is why most cities had discarded
food, trash and piles of human sh*t all over the city.
This made it ripe breeding ground for the rats who came over on merchant ships, who
carried over the fleas, which then caused the plague to spread like wildfire.
Now, some historians have presented some pretty lucid evidence to suggest that the plague
was actually spread person to person, and not by rats.
Even if that is the case, and who knows if it is….black rats are still considered to
be a pest to this day.
Like pretty much all other invasive species they invade an ecosystem, and royally f**k
it up.
Rats have been especially destructive on sub-arctic tropical islands.
Without a natural predator, they grow uncontrollably, and prey on other species, and are responsible
for the extinction of many species on tropical islands.
Seriously, who likes rats?!
Here’s what’s next!