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Posted By: MikeBinOK Suicide Bomber Aphids! (serious) - 08/04/07 07:43 AM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2056301.ece

This is too weird to be true, but it is apparently so! Reproductive fitness is enhanced since (according to either this article or a similar one I read) the aphids are genetically very very close to each other.
Posted By: Ellis Re: Suicide Bomber Aphids! (serious) - 08/05/07 03:44 AM
Mike that has to be one of the most amazing posts ever!! Suicide bombers and mustard gas all used by the same animal- and it's not humans!!!
Posted By: Wolfman Re: Suicide Bomber Aphids! (serious) - 08/05/07 04:39 AM
That's amazing. My Dad was a pioneer in the use of Ladybugs to eradicate Aphids. We'd have these little boxes of Ladybugs flown in from Africa to Canada (Can you imagine doing that in today's Regulation Laden World?) They were yellow and black and boy could they bite! We'd release them into our Dill Fields, where Aphids were prolific. You'd see close to 100 pale green Aphids on a single Dill Head. My dad didn't like using pesticides and Dill is an extremely sensitive herb. After a few days, you could see that the numbers of Aphids had been drastically reduced. The imported Ladybugs couldn't over Winter, the weather was too severe, so there was no problem with them running rampant. Ahhh, the 60's, what a time of innocence!
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