One of our introduced species is the Asian 2-Spot Lady bird beetle. Very aggressive killer of green aphids in crops and gardens.
But, they use so much of the resource "pie" and reproduce so effectively that they are driving many native species out of existance.
If we cared, what should we be doing? They're very effective but need we kill them off, if we could?
Elk (Wapiti) = Cervus canadensis are physically aggressive and very large agricultural pests.
They ruin crops, they eat crops and they push ranch livestock away from feed.
They have come west along the highway 16 corridor as this and other western districts
converted more and more valley bottom forests into farm & ranch land. Not forest animals.
Ranchers can shoot a couple as "crop insurance compensation". For the rest of us, it's a lottery for bulls only.
Even though all the herds and harems are, in fact, controlled by big old matriarch cow elk.
The hunting regulations allow these pests to become highly successful and ruin previously established ranch economies.
What's to do? Kill them off as the new-comer pest that they are?
One small compensation is that elk are a very big but very mild-tasting member of the deer family.
