[Eisenstein]

No problem: just find an animal that has no local predator and eats the beetles and introduce it to the ecosystem. What could go wrong?

[ifdefdebug]

Nothing. It will eradicate the potatoe bug and then go extinct for lack of prey.

This is incredible! It takes two HN nerds just 5 minutes to come up with a good plan a group of scientists would have needed months to develop.

[mrmincent]

I’d like to think this is the exact same conversation that gave Australia it’s 2nd favourite purse material, the cane toad.

[EdwardDiego]

And New Zealand it's near-extinct endemic birds, thank to mustelids.

[jeromenerf]

The brought-in-for-some-purpose, escape-to-bush, become-feral, become-pest worked also for cats, dogs, horses ... up-to camels. I am not aware of Australian Feral Elephants but it may exist.

[kuhewa]

It gave Hawaii no less than thirty-four species of insects introduced as attempted biocontrol of an introduced shrub Lantana. Which still grows freely