Terrestrial Terror Round 2 results: Garlic Mustard vs. Feral Swine

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Editors note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an ongoing Great Lakes Echo series. In Round 2, The Beast crushed Colonel Mustard into the ground in the brackets and the polls. Seventy-one percent of pollsters chose the feral swine over the garlic mustard. In the brackets, 47 percent of bracketeers picked the feral swine and 21 percent chose the garlic mustard.

Terrestrial Terror Round 2: Beech Scale vs. Mystery Snails

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Editor’s note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an ongoing Great Lakes Echo series. With the help of a fungal sidekick, The Bark Butcher was able to come from behind and beat out The Knapster, a favored snack of the honeybee. Another duo, the Mystery Snail Tag Team, sidelined a much smaller opponent: The Spiral of Doom. Now the two pairs double-team each other.

Terrestrial Round 2: Garlic Mustard vs. Feral Swine

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Editor’s note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an ongoing Great Lakes Echo series. Colonel Mustard uprooted the Purple Plague in Round 1 with a two-pronged attack consisting of covering forest floors and dominating the root systems beneath. The Beast earned its heavyweight title against the The Hulk with this strong skill set: carrying various viruses and parasites, trampling wildlife and killing baby deer. Now the Garlic Mustard and the Feral Swine face off.

Terrestrial Terror Round 2: European Starling vs. Gypsy Moth

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Editors note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an ongoing Great Lakes Echo series. It was a crapshoot, but Shakespeare’s Darling whipped The Egg-beater with its skills of damaging crops and contaminating areas with diseased droppings.  The Extreme Defoliator overpowered The Stale Wind, which was just a not-so-stinky nuisance in comparison. The European Starling causes millions of dollars of agricultural damage a year and is extremely adaptable. But millions have also been spent on Gypsy Moth research the last 10 years and in larvae form can defoliate and kill trees.

Terrestrial Terror Round 2: Mute Swan vs. Emerald Ash Borer

 

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Editors note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an on going Great Lakes Echo series. With an aggressive demeanor, The Silent Foul breezed by The Warbler’s Woe in Round 1. And the Emerald Ash Borer hit a home run against the little leaguer Miley Cyrex. But which formidable foe is feisty enough to fight its way into Round 3?

Great Lakes SmackDown! on WDET

Looks like the Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is getting some regional attention. Don’t miss this interview with Echo’s Alice Rossignol on WDET based out of Wayne State University.

Last chance to fill out a SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror bracket

Which terrestrial terror is the most destructive Great Lakes invasive species? You have a few more days to figure it out. Please turn in your brackets, found here, by Monday. We’ll declare the Round 1 winners and have readers and scientists discuss the “land brawls” on Tuesday. Will the emerald ash borer defeat the sirex woodwasp?