Ain't invasive species bad for the environment?

[alohaex]

Have any of you seen the Live Butterfly Garden commercial on tv or on the web. Now in this commercial they say you can raise your own butterflies from newly hatched caterpillar's to adult butterflys then let them free into the wild right. Now my question is that in elementary school did we not learn that releasing an animal into the environment that may not have been there in the first place is a very bad thing to do. So I was wondering do you think that is this a company that does not care about the environment or a company that can't be blamed because there only butterflies what harm can they do. So what do you think.

[joz]

As far as I know, yes. When you bring in a new species of animal into an environment they do not naturally exist in, they tend to take over the joint due to not having any natural predators. Anacondas in the Florida Everglades and those Chinese fish in some areas of the US where they have basically eaten any competition they had and are now apex predators.

[warghoul]

I highly doubt butterflies are considered invasive species.

[joz]

By definition they are invasive if they are not local to the area where you hatch them.

[warghoul]

It has to have an adverse effect to be labled as an invasive species
Invasive species - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[joz]

How do you know they won't?

[warghoul]

It's just a hunch I don't see a few kids growing some butterflys causing a problem but I could be wrong. I'm probably not though.

[Tails]

I remember raising butterflies in elementary school. Unsure what they did with them. Prolly released them.

Eagle survives crash through windshield - US news - Weird news - Animal weirdness - msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29522783/ns/us_news-weird_news/) - read this earlier in the week, would you say helping injured animals recover like that bad for the environment? I mean it did crash and everything happens for a reason.

[warghoul]

Well I don't believe everything happens for a reason but thats another topic.
I don't see a problem with it they are endangered and symbolic and all.

[Kong]

@Tails, how do you know everything happens for a reason? What does that even mean? What if the reason was so someone could help it recover? Why does the reason have to be so someone can watch it die? The whole thought process of stuff happens for a reason is utterly meaningless because it doesn't tell you what that reason is or what you can do with that tidbit of info.

By definition they are invasive if they are not local to the area where you hatch them.
By definition that is an Introduced species - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
To be invasive it has to also disrupt the local ecosystem.

Humans are the worst example of an evasive species.

Where I live kudzu is really bad.

The attitude of it's just a little insect, what is the worst that could happen, brought us killer bees.

The idea of introducing a new species to an area without any thought to the consequences is much more often bad than good.

Even when transporting a butterfly to an area where that species already exists you are taking a big chance. What if the butterfly you are transporting has a disease that the local population is not capable of fighting. Such as when the European humans came to the Americas and most of the native humans died of diseases like small pox because they had never seen them before and so had no natural immunities.

Is the moment of entertainment your child will get from watching a butterfly fly away worth the chance? If it is then just buy local and problem solved.

There are more reasons why releasing butterflies is bad but I think that is enough.

For more see
Butterfly Releases: Action You Can Take (http://www.naba.org/action.html)
LEAP for Biodiversity (http://www.leapbio.org/west_virginia_white.php)

[Dudebro]

How many butterflies are we talking about? If the number is really small then I doubt they could flourish and endanger other species. Besides with disease of course.

[RU Joe]

On the butterflies, don't forget that when they are in the caterpillar stage they can be ravenous and devour entire crops of food, or otherwise destroy supporting plant life in the area if given the chance to increase their numbers.
This depends on the number of predators in a given area.

Introduced species such as the wild pigs of Hawaii, the termites of New Orleans, or the mice of Australia are good examples of things gone bad.

Killer bees don't count {even though they are invasive} because they are a man - made monster, having been deliberately created by a U.S. company {Monsanto?} whose stated purpose was to create bees capable of higher honey production.

[alohaex]

How many butterflies are we talking about? If the number is really small then I doubt they could flourish and endanger other species. Besides with disease of course.

About 4 or 5 I believe I would have posted the commercial but I did not want it to seem like I was spamming

On the butterflies, don't forget that when they are in the caterpillar stage they can be ravenous and devour entire crops of food, or otherwise destroy supporting plant life in the area if given the chance to increase their numbers.
This depends on the number of predators in a given area.

Introduced species such as the wild pigs of Hawaii, the termites of New Orleans, or the mice of Australia are good examples of things gone bad.

Killer bees don't count {even though they are invasive} because they are a man - made monster, having been deliberately created by a U.S. company {Monsanto?} whose stated purpose was to create bees capable of higher honey production.

Yes the wild pig population here is reeking havoc with the native Hawaii only plant and animal life up in the moutians we are also having a problem with reindeer. I also was thinking about their caterpillar stage a whole lot of caterpillar in one place is almost like having a heard of locus eat all you crops

[Dudebro]

Well from the sound of it the people are supposed to raise the butterfly past the caterpillar stage before releasing anyways right? So that eliminates them ravaging crops unless they successfully breed in the wild. When you say 4-5 you mean per person right? I guess if lots of people did it you could have an outbreak of them but I doubt isolated groups of 4 or 5 would survive in a foreign environment. Hawaii must have predators who eat insects, right?

Btw does Hawaii have any native butterflies or moths?

[alohaex]

Well from the sound of it the people are supposed to raise the butterfly past the caterpillar stage before releasing anyways right? So that eliminates them ravaging crops unless they successfully breed in the wild. When you say 4-5 you mean per person right? I guess if lots of people did it you could have an outbreak of them but I doubt isolated groups of 4 or 5 would survive in a foreign environment. Hawaii must have predators who eat insects, right?

Btw does Hawaii have any native butterflies or moths?

No it comes 4 or 5 caterpillar per butterfly garden. Well I know that we have birds, lizards, and spiders that eat insects we might have more. Let me get back to you on if hawaii has native butterflies or moths

[Dudebro]

Nevermind I googled it and apparently you do have them, lots of them-
Butterflies of Hawaii (Top) (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Eak5t-kmn/hawaii/hawaii.htm)
They also list one that is accidentally introduced-
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Eak5t-kmn/hawaii/j00de03i.jpg
and a couple that were intentionally introduced. I bet Hawaii has lots of insect predators to cope with them.

Also I guess pulelehua is Hawaiian for butterfly. Google is awesome.

[Kong]

unless they successfully breed in the wild.Either you are releasing them in an environment that would be unsuited for them and they will die or they will probably breed. Either way it is wrong. Even if they do not breed they can transport diseases to local populations.

Hawaii must have predators who eat insects, right?There are predators everywhere. The problem is having the right type of predator. Humans shouldn't be screwing around with nature, we suck at it and have a horrible track record. At some point we have to start learning from our mistakes or accept that we are short sided selfish idiots.

Btw does Hawaii have any native butterflies or moths?I don't know about native but they do have some. Hawaii has been hurt more than most by invasive species.

Even though I think we shouldn't be doing this, there are things we do more often that are worse. On a prioritized list of things we should change this is pretty low IMO.

[alohaex]

Nevermind I googled it and apparently you do have them, lots of them-
Butterflies of Hawaii (Top) (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Eak5t-kmn/hawaii/hawaii.htm)
They also list one that is accidentally introduced-
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Eak5t-kmn/hawaii/j00de03i.jpg
and a couple that were intentionally introduced. I bet Hawaii has lots of insect predators to cope with them.

Also I guess pulelehua is Hawaiian for butterfly. Google is awesome.

I vaguely remember why they intentionally released that one I think there was some kinda bug or fungus hurting native plants and these things took care of it.

[Dudebro]

Either you are releasing them in an environment that would be unsuited for them and they will die or they will probably breed. Either way it is wrong. Even if they do not breed they can transport diseases to local populations.
Believe me I know I'm just saying it's probably gonna be ok.

There are predators everywhere. The problem is having the right type of predator.
I know but my thinking was that they already have several species of butterflies so they probably have a specialized predator keeping them in check.

I don't know about native but they do have some.
What I read seems to imply that they have several native species, 1 accidentally introduced and two intentionally introduced. Like Alohaex said they probably intentionally released them to battle another invasive species. We do suck at this.

[warghoul]

If you see this butterfly run far away!!!
YouTube - BLACK METAL BUTTERFLY !

[RU Joe]

YouTube - In A Gadda Da Vida - Iron Buttefly I