A few phone calls later, the dead feral pigs started streaming in
September 26, 2017 12:21 PM   Subscribe

 
RIVERS OF MAGGOTS thank you nat'l geo for opening with a line that alerted me to immediately turn off browser images before reading the article
posted by poffin boffin at 12:29 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Ewwwwwwww...
posted by jim in austin at 12:32 PM on September 26, 2017


"Back to normal"? I'd be more careful with that word if I were a scientist.
posted by Laotic at 12:32 PM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


“Invasives tend to like environments that are unstable,” he explains, “and if you create this environment that's quite chaotic, you could be creating opportunities for them to have a foothold.”

Bets on how long this takes to show up in a silicon valley pitch?
posted by wildblueyonder at 12:37 PM on September 26, 2017 [7 favorites]


RIVERS OF MAGGOTS thank you nat'l geo for opening with a line that alerted me to immediately turn off browser images before reading the article

Alas, there are only written descriptions of the hellscape this experiment created.

Kinda disappointing.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 12:44 PM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


Traps for ground-dwelling insects were lifted out of the ground by maggots and “rode the river of maggots down the hill.”

Needs to be repurposed, like "fuck you guys, ride a river of maggots" or something.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:49 PM on September 26, 2017 [8 favorites]


yes i bravely turned images back on for science and was delighted by a photo of frolicking piglets
posted by poffin boffin at 12:49 PM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


I wanted photos.
posted by agregoli at 12:59 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


“Invasives tend to like environments that are unstable,” he explains, “and if you create this environment that's quite chaotic, you could be creating opportunities for them to have a foothold.”

This make me visualize a Far Side where two dinosaurs were looking at little furry things scuttling around their ankles while an approaching meteorite loomed behind them.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:01 PM on September 26, 2017


“Invasives tend to like environments that are unstable,” he explains, “and if you create this environment that's quite chaotic, you could be creating opportunities for them to have a foothold.”
Bets on how long this takes to show up in a silicon valley pitch?


It's a truism in engineering that things that are stable are unresponsive and things that are responsive are inherently unstable - and the real trick of engineering is figuring out how much of one or the other you'd like to have.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:03 PM on September 26, 2017 [7 favorites]


This is much weirder than the orange peels in Brazil thing.
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:04 PM on September 26, 2017 [8 favorites]


Orange peels FPP.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:15 PM on September 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


The vultures must have been all "What have we done to deserve this largess? Porky McMaggots!"
posted by pracowity at 1:41 PM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


The paper (paywalled), uses the best language to describe said "rivers of maggots":

Photograph of the mass synchronized dispersal of blow fly larvae 5 days after deposition of 725kg of carrion biomass. Carrion remains are located on the left side of the photograph with a panoramic view of the mass dispersal (white coloration along forest floor) moving away from the carrion in right side of photograph. Refer to Video S1 for high-quality video documentation of the larvae dispersal in motion.

Yes, this means that the paper contains both a photo, and video. Rejoice, those of you with institutional subscriptions.
posted by quaking fajita at 1:56 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


soaked in pig gunk
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:08 PM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I once hiked over to a spot where about 20 Black Vultures were congregating (some passing cars had already scared most of them off). There was nothing there but a very picked over shell of an armadillo. I thought they must just like hanging out together and sharing the news. There must have been millions of them for 3 tons of pork.

Also, Costa Rica is a long way from Brazil.
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:10 PM on September 26, 2017


I want to know where they were storing the initial 4000lbs of pig carcasses. Walk-in freezers?
posted by quaking fajita at 2:15 PM on September 26, 2017


A refrigerated trailer for a truck would be my guess. They're pretty cheap to rent.
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:28 PM on September 26, 2017


As someone who has had various failures in leaf litter breakdown experiments, I am delighted that I have never had them fail due to being soaked in pig gunk.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:52 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


Collecting the microbial data during this active decomposition phase was like playing Twister, says Heather Jordan of Mississippi State. “You have to not fall, try not to step on the pigs, try not to step in the adipocere”—aka corpse wax, it results from decomposition of fats—“which was everywhere, this muck and soup and slime, and bend down and get into that internal microbial community with spiders and larva and all kinds of nasty flies everywhere.”

my memories of how to play twister are so different from this
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 3:21 PM on September 26, 2017 [19 favorites]


Maybe they just need to wait 15 years like with the orange waste in Brazil.

“You have to not fall, try not to step on the pigs, try not to step in the adipocere”—aka corpse wax, it results from decomposition of fats—“which was everywhere, this muck and soup and slime, and bend down and get into that internal microbial community with spiders and larva and all kinds of nasty flies everywhere.”

Yeah, they should have stayed away longer.
posted by shoesietart at 4:10 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Alas, there are only written descriptions of the hellscape this experiment created.

Did you guys not watch the video at the top of the article?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:26 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


a sudden jolt of animal carcasses

In some places, this is an annual event.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:35 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Did you guys not watch the video at the top of the article?

Oh yes indeedy. My next thought was "My god. They will become rivers of flies. Skyward rivers."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:38 PM on September 26, 2017


Did you guys not watch the video at the top of the article?

Yeah, if you guys want your rivers of maggots, the video has your rivers of maggots.
posted by tavella at 4:39 PM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Look on the bright side - if the maggots and vultures didn't show up in flocks and rivers, those carcasses would still be a stinking pile.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:47 PM on September 26, 2017


Hmm. A friend of mine had a science fair experiment one year called "The Fly Farm".
posted by lagomorphius at 4:59 PM on September 26, 2017


Evan as gross as that was (rivers! of MAGGOTS!), it was actually really interesting!
posted by TurquoiseZebra at 5:07 PM on September 26, 2017


Yes, this means that the paper contains both a photo, and video. Rejoice, those of you with institutional subscriptions.

It appears they're not themselves paywalled; just click on “Supporting Information”. If you really want to I guess.
posted by traveler_ at 6:47 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Apparently just hunting/eating feral pigs is not a solution as they are so tough and gamy. They are a real pest here in Texas for sure.
posted by emjaybee at 7:53 PM on September 26, 2017


Bets on how long this takes to show up in a silicon valley pitch?

"It's like Uber, but for rivers of maggots."
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:02 PM on September 26, 2017 [9 favorites]


"Porkr"?
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:25 PM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Larvr.

The good thing about using Larvr is the infrastructure is already in place: the bins and dumpsters of our city streets.

Can't have taxi drivers moaning about Uber or rideshare vehicles taking their spots - you just book your ride, find the nearest bin, and the maggots swarm out of it and transport you to your destination.

It's extra good if you are shitfaced drunk ("maggoted", as they say) because as well as PayPal, Larvr accepts payment in fountains of vomit and half-eaten kebabs.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:27 PM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


If you have an interest in viewing the utterly metal paper and supplementary information, you probably already know what to do. Please feel free to memail me with an email address I can send PDFs and an mp4 to as well as a promise not to distribute these files any further. If after reading the paper you came back to the thread to contribute your impressions to this academic conversation we are currently having, it would then make me embarrassingly happy.

The video of the "river of maggots" ...does not disappoint.
posted by Blasdelb at 3:00 AM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Stoked to see this on the blue! I am proud to call Christie Wilcox a former lab mate.
posted by deadbilly at 3:39 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Apparently just hunting/eating feral pigs is not a solution as they are so tough and gamy.

People clearly aren't hungry enough yet.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:02 AM on September 27, 2017


This kind of SCIENCE!:
1) Is fascinating
2) Makes me grateful my research is in the humantities
posted by dr. boludo at 5:30 AM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


“Invasives tend to like environments that are unstable,” he explains, “and if you create this environment that's quite chaotic, you could be creating opportunities for them to have a foothold.”

Bets on how long this takes to show up in a silicon valley pitch?


I mean, that's basically technolibertarianism in a nutshell.
posted by duffell at 6:24 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I read the article and while I was fascinated by the science and whatnot I was a bit disappointed to learn there were separate pig piles. I was expecting a single glorious porcine pyramid, a tribute (or warning) to the gods and spirits of the region.

But little piles of pigs bounded by sticks displaying QR codes ... modern-day witchcraft is weirder than I thought.
posted by komara at 7:06 AM on September 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


Larvr accepts payment in fountains of vomit and half-eaten kebabs.

Protip: the Larvr-branded maggot-proof body suit is well worth the extra charge. It keeps the drivers on the road and out of your clothes and flesh.
posted by otherchaz at 9:52 AM on September 27, 2017


This reminded me of a larger-scale version of something that I saw near a farm that I visited in Minnesota in the mid-seventies. They had cows--honestly can't remember if it was for beef, dairy, or both--and back in the woods they had a place where they dumped bodies of cows that had died and/or what was left over after slaughter. I got downwind of it... never in my life has the awareness of nausea and actually throwing up come so close together.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:09 AM on September 27, 2017


Also, the maggot river makes me wonder if a certain scene, I'm sure you know which one I mean, will appear in the upcoming adaptation of Good Omens.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:10 AM on September 27, 2017


VULTURES, MAGGOTS, FLIES, HORNET AND ARMADILLOS WERE ALL ATTRACTED IN LARGE NUMBERS TO THE SITE
I paused at this, as there is clearly something I do not know about armadillos.
And after the wriggling streams of maggots abandoned the skeletonized carcasses, and buried themselves in the dirt to pupate, herds of nine-banded armadillos shuffled into the area. They tore up the ground to get at the maggots. The sum of all that disturbance made the soil “weird to walk on,” says Barton, its texture had changed so much. It also wrecked the plant communities, allowing new species to colonize the area.
Okay, that makes sense. Carry on. This summer, local skunks decided that my front yard was a great place to forage for grubs. They started at one side and worked their way across; by the time they were finished, probably ten percent of the lawn was gone. I filled it in with soil and planted grass seed, but it is still a mess.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:26 AM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


never in my life has the awareness of nausea and actually throwing up come so close together.

I lived a couple miles downwind of a slaughterhouse in Great Falls, MT, but the odor was never strong enough to cause gagging. Much nose-wrinkling, tho.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:32 PM on September 27, 2017


So, those 200,000 saiga antelopes that dropped dead? Turn out there was a Soviet era biological weapons testing facility nearby.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:54 AM on September 29, 2017


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