Myrtle rust.

This introduced pathogen has enormous potential to change the Australian landscape.

First detected in NSW in 2010 and now very rapidly getting a foot-hold in a continuous band all the way down coastal Queensland and New South Wales, and who knows how far inland, this rust fungus has enormous potential for damage, to crops, gardens and the natural environment.

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/4790_19788.htm

It affects many plants in the family Myrtaceae, which is Australia’s most dominant plant family, to which the eucalypts, lilly-pillies, tea-trees, bottlebrushes and many others belong.

It badly debilitates them and kills some. Where it affects the dominant trees, it has the potential to drastically change whole ecosystems with enormous consequences for all other plants, birds and animals.

It’s full potential is yet unknown, but there is no doubt that it is here to stay and is uncontainable.

It really does have the potential to be right up there with our worst weeds, feral animals and other stuff-arounds of the natural environment:: rubbervine, lantana, cane toads, cats, foxes, oil spills, changed fire regimes, etc.

There is only one environmental impact that it is not likely to compete with – land-clearing over the last hundred or so years.

Only time will tell how bad it gets.

Your thoughts…..

Yes aware of it and fear it, it would wipe out my garden.
I have re introduced scaly breasted and rainbows in big numbers.
Over 30 bottle bush 6 meters high and than number from 1 to 3 and growing.
Lily pillys too but young yet.
Natives of both species are endemic around here so once here no stopping it.
My trees are high flowering weeping type and impossible to save.
Ludwig just as my thread about the dangers of slack boarder control was meant to be a warning,your post confirms how much danger we can be placed in.
Any idea how this came here..
We need to consider as an act of terrorism, or massive industrial sabotage we are at risk.

Belly, this thread does indeed tie right into yours.

We need tight border protection against the introduction of all manner of feral organisms. We need to be very strict about fungal pathogens. However, they are notoriously hard to deal with.

This fungus is native to South America. I don’t know how it got here. It could well have just come in as spores on someone’s clothing, which would be practically impossible for any border protection methodology to prevent.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying as hard as we can to stop such horrible blights from entering the country.

I think we’ve also got a problem with early detection and eradication.

When citrus canker popped up in Emerald a few years ago, it was a huge deal, with quarantined properties and maximised effort to eradicate it, including the destruction of thousands of trees, at huge cost to all Emerald citrus growers.

But I nothing of the sort happened with myrtle rust, as far as I know.

This is truly extraordinary.

NO ONE GIVES A HOOT!! !! !! !!

The introduction and now widespread establishment of myrtle rust is of major concern, with potentially enormous consequences…..

....and it draws about as much response as a dead dingo’s dick in the middle of the Tanami Desert!!

Pfpfpfpfffffff!!

Ludwig such is life.
I too have been surprised how little interest is shown in some threads that should be of great interest.
We could start threads on dole bludging or boat people climate change and much more and get big posting numbers.
I see a change in human behavior,we are locked in our personal battles and uninterested in the big picture.
Looking good is more important to some than thinking about life its self.
We seem content to let others make our choices then be bitter at the results.
Even in growing our gardens we see easy grown no maitenece plants not natives.
And few grow food.
My trees cover a host of plants under them that will die if they do.
Bees already struggling to survive,my visiting birds will no longer be seen.
A day approaches that will put environmental protection back in its place, mainstream.

I agree Ludwig, there is too little notice taken of agricultural risks.
I think that is because the vast majority of people have been for two
or three generations disconnected from the land.

That situation may improve in the future as people start growing more
of their own food. Even if it is only to supplement what they buy at
the supermarket. Actually I have noticed a significant growth in the
number of traders and buyers at the Thursday market held in the
shopping centre. The greengrocer (now there is a word from the past)
had a crowd around his stand, so much so that they were two and three deep.
He has his farm not more than about 15km from the centre.

So a change is happening, maybe slowly, but it is happening.

Oh! Great, What side can I be on? Kidding.

Belly: Any idea how this came here?

Environmental Scientists have no Idea how it got to Australia. My next door neighbour, but one, is an Environmental Scientist & the native plants in his garden suddenly became riddled with it. He says they don't know how or where it came from. There is a debate as to how it is carried, wind or birds, but they are not sure as yet or as to which birds do the carrying & it also appears to be seasonal (wind & migrating birds).

They are doing a DNA test to identify the regional origin at the moment, but nothing so far. He is also a Biologist, but he said it was boring & they were controlled by big Chemical Companies as to what they could release or continue to study if they find something. That's why he gave it up to become an Environmental Scientist. He is in contact with those doing the research on the Myrtle Rust. He said that it only affects, Errr, something scientific, Eucalyptus type plants, not food plants. It doesn't affect what we eat but it will have a great effect on native wildlife.

He grows all sorts of weird & rare stuff in his garden. He has a licence to do it. Lots of native food plants. Yumm!

Interesting Jayb my garden is a jungle, under control but thats what I planed.
Elephant ears under bottle brush, many types and survived big frosts.
Fruit trees full, had to give up much but not all stone fruit, flying foxes do not mix with rain water tanks.
Got badly bruised in a thread about Indian Miner birds, but they are flying rats.
And introduced species killing natives living on any thing and will one day if not now carry bad illness.
Bazz afraid the world is about us, the group and thats it , some one else can fix it while we are at the beach.
PS Lilly's of every type and Irises every place.

Belly: Got badly bruised in a thread about Indian Miner birds, but they are flying rats.

How would you get bruised on Indian Minor Birds. You ARE right. Although, rat of the air, is taken, by Pigeons. We could call them Cane Toads of the air though.

In Townsville & parts of North Queensland they have just about wiped out Local Species. They nest anywhere & any time. Favourite places under your eves. They have caused a few house fires. Traffic Lights, they nest in the light tube in Winter where it's warm. A US Sailor was caught smuggling out two, yes, nobody knows how he caught them. He was asked if he wanted some more. Apparently they sell for $15000 each in the States. Go figure.

I left in the middle of this to go down to talk to Chris about the Myrtle Rust.

The Latest. It affects 153 tree & shrub species in Australia. It was imported through the Nursery Industry. They haven't found any fungicide that will deal with it as yet, but they are still working on it. It's is seasonable, mostly in wet Summers & mild wet Winters. It is spread by direct contact & wind where it grows in moist environments then spreads to infect new growth leaves. It is potentially very dangerous to Australian Native trees & could potentially cause a complete collapse of Australian Flora & Fauna.

& there ya have it.

All ok jayb,well Ludwig is not impressed with my claim about those birds.
But a female poster ripped flesh of! telling me she was an expert and I should hear and act on her advice, send the yank here 100,s free!
Yes concerned in time others will share our views Ludwig, you, and mine.
On the development of the last rabbit killer, it was smuggled out of the lab before ready and spread about.
Horse racing and sporting stopped because of an introduced virus, prickly pear nearly beat us cane toads have.
What if its one of those middle Africa horror viruses next?

Thanks for your comments Jayb, Bazz and Belly.

There is hope for this thread yet!

Bazz, I get the distinct feeling that if myrtle rust was seen as an agricultural risk, it would have been clamped right down on with just as much conviction as citrus canker was in Emerald in 2004.

But it is viewed ‘only’ as a pathogen of the natural environment and garden plants and therefore nowhere near as important, despite being feared to be a very bad organism.

The same thing seems to apply with Siam weed, which is often called the world’s worst weed, when it popped up near Tully and then near Townsville a few years ago. ‘Only’ an environmental weed, therefore not given as much attention as it should have got. It was still given a fair bit of attention, but I reckon a serious disease of sugarcane would have received ten times as much attention and an absolute determination to eradicate it. I’m not seeing that with Siam weed. It now looks as though it is here to stay and become worse than Lantana and rubbervine combined!

It’s a damn pity, especially given the increased environmental awareness of the last couple of decades.

Jayb, myrtle rust could possibly have come here via migrating birds, but I would think that highly unlikely. Given the very large number of susceptible Myrtaceae species in Australia, you would think that such a fungal pathogen would have become established here thousands or millions of years ago if it could be spread by migrating birds.

So it almost definitely came here via humans. However, such an organism could so easily get into the country despite the best border controls.

We’d need a rigorous quarantine procedure for all foreign arrivals and returning citizens and all imported goods in order to stop organisms which propagate themselves via minute spores. Even then we’d have no confidence in being able to stop them.

But of course, as I said previously, we should be putting in our best efforts at stopping pathogens and feral organisms at our borders, ports and airports.

Belly, yes I feel that myna birds are not a major problem.

There are many hundreds of feral plant and animal species in Australia. There is a continuum from extremely damaging species to totally benign ones. There are many ferals that are not of any concern or only of minor concern. I’d say that mynas are in this category.

I’ve observed them in north Queensland for thirty years. They are abundant in built-up areas and intensive agricultural areas.

I’m a mad birdo. I can attest that just about the full suite of native birds still abound throughout these areas, despite the highly altered landscape. So mynas don’t out-compete them for nest sites, destroy their eggs or young to any great extent or otherwise disadvantage the native birds. And they don’t live in the bush or even in grazing country.

Some native species such as noisy miners and pied currawongs are much worse, in Brisbane and further south. They are really aggressive and have come to rule the roost in intensively humanised landscapes. But even then, there are various other native birds that persist and do well.

<< prickly pear nearly beat us cane toads have >>

Well, we certainly knocked the stuffing out of prickly pear. Mind you, it is still around, along the edge of the beach all over the place, and well inland in the brigalow country. But it is now in balance with natural and semi-natural grazing ecosystems and is no longer a concern.

There are however other species of cactus that are looming as major threats: http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/4790_10188.htm
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/4790_10179.htm

As for cane toads, yes they do initial damage, but then they come into balance with their new ecosystems pretty quickly. In north Queensland where there have been toads for many years, we still have healthy populations of most animals that were initially impacted. And ravens and some other birds have learnt to flip toads on their back and thus be able to eat them while avoiding the poison glands.

Um… what’s this thread about? Oh yeah, myrtle rust! Oow! ( :>|

Ludwig I suspect the rust will harm me much more.
But stand by my thoughts on those birds.
See I live in semi rural area and am infested by them.
They have remove ridge capping and nested in my roof, the nests are dense,and inflammable.
Beach side trees hold hundreds at night, screech noise .
They kill other birds, native myners included.
My whole garden is a bird welcoming thing.
They eat unripe fruit, out hunt all but pea wees and Willy wag tails.
My veranda roof, tank water, is white with you know what.
Councils up and down 1.000 klm of east coast help kill them.
If bird flue comes no other species is equip to carry it as much as them.
Large flocks close contact with humans and will even to invade homes to feed.
My kingdom/garden for a poison!/slug gun!

Belly: But a female poster ripped flesh of! telling me she was an expert and I should hear and act on her advice,

I wouldn't worry about her, Belly. She most likely learnt her stuff out of a book at a Uni somewhere. All these crazies do. She has probably never seen one in the wild.

I have seen Minors gang up & attack local birds even when they arn't nesting. They love dog food but not if you put rat sack with it. They are very inteligent.

Lugwig: imported goods in order to stop organisms which propagate themselves via minute spores.

You would have thought that Customs would have picked it up in Quarrantine, knowing how pedantic they are.

Myrtaceae species.

Ah ha, thats the one.

ravens and some other birds have learnt to flip toads on their back and thus be able to eat them while avoiding the poison glands.

True, but it took 40 odd years to learn that trick. I found a dead Brown snake & a dead toad beside one another a few months back. The Brown didn't look like it enjoyed the experience

jayb yes well she quoted her uni credentials, and in truth took to me every chance she got, on any subject.
Please do not get me wrong, I love women, every shape and size.
But turn right off at the first sign of over control.
I think I see a great deal of it around, women wanting to not just change but dominate men.
Fat chance around me.
Starlings? thats what a lot call these things, sure the name is as we say but gee!
Had visit from builder, a local this morning, he spoke about putting roof on my veranda.
And received a present from these as they flew over.
You are right they know rat sack.
how long will it take to learn about slug guns?

Belly: But turn right off at the first sign of over control.

I know what you mean. I got a wife like that. My defence, "Ah Ha, Hmmmm. Ah ha, Hmmmmm." Then do my own thing. When she gets controlling. When she gets cranky, I just smile. Hmmm, come to think of it that's what I do to all controllers. Agree with them, but let them know you're being condescending, & smile a lot. And, never get into a prolonged argument with them. Come back later with the facts & just give it to them & walk away smiling. They know. Gees, I'm a bastard. ;-)

I told that "Ah ha hmmm" to our Vietnamese guide. He went home & tried it on his wife. She said, "Don't come that crap with me." or the Vietnamese equivalent & threw him out for the night. I had a great laugh but he didn't think it was funny.

Starlings. I've never had any dealings with them, but they tell me there are bad.

Minors know what Daisys are & they will clear off until you go inside, then come back. They can even spot you trying to hide.

Belly, even if mynas are as bad as you think, they are but one of hundreds of feral species that have a similar or worse level of impact on our native species and environment.

If we were successful in eradicating mynas, which would come at great expense and difficulty, we would hardly achieve a thing in the bigger picture.

We’d still have sparrows, rock doves (feral pigeons), spotted turtle-doves, nutmeg mannikins, kelp gulls and other feral birds, as well as out-of-balance over-aggressive native species like pied currawongs, noisy miners and rainbow lorikeets in our urban and agricultural areas.

Much better that we put our efforts into other things and leave the established feathered ferals alone!

I’d suggest that it is much more important to make sure that the eradication of new feral species is given top priority. I mean all ferals, including plants, animals, birds, fungi, fish, molluscs, algae, etc.

Tim Low’s book; Feral Future (http://www.timlow.com/books/feral-future) makes the point that ferals are here to stay, once they become established and that we had better get used to the fact that our ecology has changed irreversibly, due to hundreds of species of ferals….

…and due to one species of feral that is worse than all the others combined – non-indigenous humans!!

But we can stop new ones from worsening the situation if we put our minds to it.

And (look out, here goes Ludwig with his trademark rant...) we can stop the worst feral of all from becoming ever-worse if we just get it into our heads to achieve a stable population and sustainable society !! !! !! !! ( : > )

Now THAT'S what we should be spending our mental energies and money on. Not myna birds or other well-established minor ferals!

You will not be surprised Ludwig to know I agree with every word.
Except the myna birds, they flock screech steel and kill.
I know of no other except cane toads that has little old Lady's in big numbers meeting in schools of art and clubs to find out how to kill them.
Aware some have few or none, we have millions, beach side trees have hundreds each night screeching for an hour.
Once the home of mag pies now only these awful things.
Councils lend traps and tell us how to kill them, so we are not alone.
jayb you describe the reason Aussie men have sheds/mates clubs/ fishing gear and golf!
I , every man, uses the same tactic, that bloke talking woman cracks me up!
Best adds ever the whisperer telling the fiery one let him have another beer too!
Let us both be glad they do not hear what they are called down the pub behind their backs.
And that just some times we can out fox them.

Sparrows. When I was growing up in the Burdekin, in Ayr, the Italians used cast nets to catch hundreds of them. Then they ate them. I guess they did their best to eradicate them, but failed.

Feral pigs: another scourge. We shot 60 in one sitting at one water hole in one afternoon near Lockhart River in the 80's. Never made a dent in the population. You have no idea of the damage they do.

Ludwig, on killing minor Birds. You have to admit pinging them with a Daisy is great sport. I had a Diana 16 when I was a kid. One of my mates had one of those pump action ones.

Lugwig: we had better get used to the fact that our ecology has changed irreversibly, due to hundreds of species of ferals….

I guess that applies with everything controversial, doesn't it? ;-)

I neglected to mention common starlings, which are probably Australia’s worst feral bird.

I actually find mynas quite endearing. Their general character and cheekiness is entertaining. You commonly see groups of four, presumably two mated pairs, having a lovely little chat, replete with much head-bobbing.

I can hear them calling and celebrating the wonderful winter sunshine right now here in the middle of Cairns. And I can also hear brown honeyeaters, yellow honeyeaters and white-throated honeyeaters calling… all of which are just the sorts of small native birds that you’d expect mynas to displace if they were really as nasty as we are led to believe by some people. (I’m not referring to you Belly, but to others over the years that I’ve heard being very unkind to poor wittle mynabirds!)

Yes I’ve seen mynas ganging up on what appeared to be an injured bird. But I don’t think you should single them out as having a darker side to their character – many birds are inherently aggressive and quite nasty at times.

I’ve seen pretty nasty stuff not only from those reputed to be aggressive, but also from the likes of red wattlebirds, blue-faced honeyeaters and even small species like woodswallows. Kookaburras and kites seem to cop a bucketing from all manner of small birds! All sorts of birds are aggressive to each other, of the same species and to other species that are both smaller and larger than themselves. I have observed that sort of thing a lot over the last 13 years that I’ve been a full-on birdo!

continued

WA is free of mynas and also free of the most significant feral birds of the east – starlings and sparrows.

But it does not have a greater concentration of native birds in intensively humanised landscapes. The comparison of WA to eastern Australia clearly shows that these feral birds are pretty low-key all-considered.

WA shares a couple of feral birds with the east – rock doves and spotted turtle doves and it has one species that is not in the eastern states – laughing turtle doves.

I LIKE the feathered ferals of humanised landscapes!

I say: good on them!

Humans have so totally changed these environments, to the enormous detriment of most species. A small number of feral species have joined them and perhaps made it another 0.000000001% worse for a few natives!

But a pretty reasonable suite of native species persist in these totally unnatural environments.

All good stuff as far as I’m concerned….given that we have to have such a monumental change to our natural ecology in the first place!

Ludwig pairs? I never see less than 40!
Are we talking about the same birds.
No sparrows here no room for the little fast food packs once the Ferrel's came.
jayb, seems you got the fear your trouble and strife would see your posts!
Not a problem for me now but try being a ham radio operator! leaving the war zone to hide in the shed gets them off side!

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/04/08/2044900.htm
LUDWIG!
I understand only a very rough chance exists you will revisit this thread.
But if you do can you confirm, picture in link, this is the bird you speak about?
Right now, spring on way, a count puts 83 in my yard at morning and night.

Yes Belly, that is the little blighter.

The article is a shocker! It is pretty clearly written by someone who had no idea about mynas beforehand and did a bit of quick research, managing to collate the worst opinions of mynas and exaggerate heaps to make it sound even worse!

It is pretty clear that she wanted to write a piece condemning mynas, and was not open to the possibility that they really aren't so bad.

For one thing; the distribution map in the article is terribly wrong. It has mynas going as far north as about Bowen or Ayr, in a continuous band from about Melbourne.

But they are prolific a lot further north, from Townsville to the Daintree River north of Cairns. And they are absent south of Townsville for a long distance; in Ayr, Bowen, Mackay, Rockhampton, etc and pop up again in Childers and then there is another break before they pop up in far southeast Queensland.

Today in Mission Beach I observed lots of mynas. But all the native birds that you would expect are still around and in healthy numbers, in the built-up areas.

I’ve observed these birds for thirty years in north Queensland. Even when they do form large flocks, as they sometimes do in the Wet Tropics, I can’t see that they are a particularly bad feral species. They just seem to fit in pretty well, into a very highly altered landscape… and do not disadvantage native species to any significant extent.

LUDWIG, while the thread rests in peace.
While I am talking to myself
http://www.smh.com.au/national/pushy-myna-birds-a-major-nest-pest-20120812-242v2.html
Here in my view is all the evedence I need to say my fears are well based.

Thanks Belly for continuing the debate.

Again I have to disagree with the article that you have posted.

From the article:

< The myna bird … is squeezing out some of Australia's signature species including the laughing kookaburra, crimson rosella and sulphur-crested cockatoo >

Balls!

Here in Cairns, with a very large population of mynas, we have the endless raucous screeches of thousands of sulphur-crested cockatoos, and the ever-present dawn and dusk cacophonies of laughing kookaburras. They put on a wonderful display this morning at my campsite!

<< Eight smaller species including the grey fantail, magpie-lark, willie wagtail and silvereye also fared poorly. >>

This is ridiculous! Magpie larks and willie wagtails are abundant in just the same humanised landscapes as mynas, and silvereyes and grey fantails are common in adjacent bushland areas.

The author of this article is completely off the rails!!

Hi Belly. I’m sitting here at a café on the Cairns Esplanade, and guess what I’m doing – feeding myna birds!!

They just LUUUVE scrambled eggs!!

Hehehehe ( :>)

So we BOTH feed them lovely little feral featherfaces!