Confession time: Which invasive species do you secretly LOVE?

Yeah, we have nutria here, too. I have heard talk about eating them, but I haven’t seen or heard of anyone actually doing it.

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Especially as Nutria means Otter in Spanish!

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https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/confession-time-which-invasive-species-do-you-secretly-love/55517/34

But you can eat the shoots!

This is a good point, we must always consider who is claiming something to be invasive, as there are multiple competing interests.
For example, there are a few gall making wasps that were busy hammering invasive Eucalypts in the mediterranean. This obviously frustrated timber companies, and when a new species was found, it was literally named Leptocybe invasa.
Eucalypts are a disaster in the mediterranean, and southern Africa, and more besides, so I’m quite happy to ignore foresters and to see these little things to spread as far and wide as possible.
But there’s more! After this helpful fellow was described, a parasitoid of it was then found in it’s native Australia, and introduced into the mediterranean, and within a few years it was even found in the United States. Despite its recent and rapid travels, it is not referred to as invasive.

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They do occasionally occur in natural areas, such as areas with cliffs where they can nest. They may play a role in spreading diseases to native bird species. And their cooing noises may be mistaken for mountain lions by hikers below the cliffs.

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Feral pigs (in North America). They cause terrible damage to the ecosystem and it’s part of my job to protect lands from them. But they are so smart and good at what they do. I enjoy standing quietly near a large group of them and just watching them as they forage and interact with each other. Sometimes a young one will see me or smell me and look alarmed, but then it looks around and sees that nobody else is alarmed, so it goes back to its business. But when one of them finally recognizes me as a threat, it will let out a warning grunt. Then the dominant female in the group lets out a loud grunt and instantly, everybody runs off together at full speed.

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I’d love to see a hiker running from a pigeon :laughing:

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I’m not sure I’d like to see cities without pigeons, though. There are so few animals to begin with that seeing a couple pigeons always feels like a special treat. I’m always terrified I’ll end up living in one of the “dense, vibrant communities” in the city where there’s nothing but metal, plastic, and filthy concrete as far as the eye can see, with some strips of grass and Norway maples as stand-ins for “nature.”

I guess I get to add city pigeons as my second “invasive I secretly love,” or at least appreciate, then.

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If you are wondering what @song_dog’s first answer was, it was:

I think part of the value of this topic — which I didn’t realize when I created it — is that it might make you feel less alone. You’re not the only iNatter who secretly loves invasive species! :hugs:

And you can make “lemonade” with the flowerhead. It’s an all around fantastic native tree.

It took me a while to remeber, but: False Strawberry. I think it’s so neat that it fooled scientists for so long. Its original genus, Duchesnia, was named after Antoine Nicolas Duchesne because of his work with strawberries, and three of its synonyms are Fragaria indica Andrews, Fragaria malayana Roxb., and Fragaria nilagirica Zenker, indicating that its mimicry of a strawberry was good enough that at least three taxonomists were willing to consider it a true strawberry rather than a false one. Not bad for a Potentilla.

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they have saved me and the native bees here from going hungry.

I am not arguing that is not! The thing is, it is native where YOU live. Not were I live. Plus it doesn’t flower in the right period.

I am adamant in strictly sticking to local European species that occur naturally in my specific neck of the woods. That said, I did however consider looking at four non-native species because they would flower (=provide nectar and pollen) after July when most local species are done flowering (being able to nick the odd leaf or tuber once in a while is just an added bonus):

  1. The aforementioned Toona sinensis (Asia)
  2. Tetradium daniellii (Asia)
  3. Smallanthus sonchifolius (South America)
  4. Silphium perfoliatum (North America)

The first three are policed to remain in confined areas. The fourth one I have skipped so far, and would in any event not be planted without rhizome barriers.
You see, I’ve been burnt before – had to spend a lot of money, effort and time to rein in run-away Phyllostachys bamboo that the previous owner of my place had planted, and I wowed that will never happen to me.

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There are so many species that go by that name, it’s a real mess. And even scientifically they are hard to tell apart. Nevertheless, I have never seen monocultures, not even in places and years when they are overabundant.

Had to look up the common names you used because they mean nothing to me.
Purple loosestrife could be any of three species. Which are you referring to?
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/search?q=Purple%20loosestrife

Lythrum salicaria.

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I also find Lythrum salicaria to be very nice!

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In general house geckos aren’t really very destructive so technically ‘exotic’ not invasive btw. Dope little lizards for sure.

Pythons are definitely my fave. Big, strong, resilient, not to mention beautiful- shades of gold and brown with an iridescent sheen. Super impressive animals imo

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