28 Jun
2002
28 Jun
'02
4:04 a.m.
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote:
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, David Barnes wrote:
Now if I could only have trained her to go after ants
I would have kept
her around :)
Amen. Here in Texas, the fire ant invasion is killing off all manner
of native life. When I was a kid in West Texas, horned toads were
literally as common as cockroaches. Unfortunately, their primary
delicacy is ants, and they'll sit by a mound or an ant trail and pick
the ants off. You can imagine what happens when a horny toad does that
on a fire ant mound. Fire ants will swarm an intruder, and are venomous
enough to make even a human adult ill, if there are enough bites. A
horned toad is easy pickings.
Horned toads are on the endangered species list now, and nobody I know
has even seen one in ten years. As far as I know or have been able to
find out, there aren't any "civilization" related factors in their
impending extinction. Just those blasted ants.
Doc