Gunslinger's war on weeds

[dannefaerd]

There are many ways to get rid of weeds. You can dig them up, spray them, cut them to pieces or burn them.

But noxious weed eradicator Trevor Thompson prefers to shoot them.

Displaying Kiwi ingenuity, Conservation Department employee Mr Thompson is having great success shooting inaccessible pest plants on Mana Island using a paintball gun.

Original Linkage (http://stuff.co.nz/3982842a10.html).

Something a bit different for the paintball world ... anyone else got any random assed ways of using paintball gear?

[Vijil]

haha cool, I want that job. I'll use my ego...

[brin_vg]

Well, I know you've seen my party popper vijil... Another fun thing to do is keep the valve open on a co2 tank (I just use an asa) and aim it at something, e.g. a beer to make it nice and cold. Complete waste of co2, but hey!:D:D:D

[FireFox]

further to this (from the FOMI newsletter):

Kiwi Ingenuity
Boxthorn on Mana Island is a constant headache. This noxious scrub
springs up in all sorts of awkward and inaccessible situations. It is
particularly bad on the steep north-west corner. In the past DoC
have tried various methods of getting rid of it, often resorting to
spraying from the air — a costly business.
Trevor Thompson was contracted to work on Mana earlier this year
and, thinking outside the square, he decided to try out a rather
different method of eradication. Shoot it!
One hundred percent his own idea, Trevor buys paint balls (as used in
war games) which he then laboriously empties of paint and re-fills with
herbicide.
His aim is to hit the boxthorn so that the ball shatters and releases
the herbicide in a mist of spray. It usually takes about ten shots to
fully cover the unwanted plant.
This method minimises the collateral damage to native species as only
the target gets hit and the surrounding plants are not affected.
So far this has been successful and the boxthorn appears to die
within about three weeks.


Yes fooks, he is emptying then hand filling the paintballs.
I have suggested they use perfect circle paintballs but the plastic may be a problem. I wonder if there would be a market for paintball shell/herbicide fill balls (so they decompose) as just about every island in NZ has a good number of pest trees on it that are insane to reach (e.g. Mana is a 100m cliff, Somes is a 30m cliff, with the pest plants growing in the middle of the old dump). I think I may have found a job....

Remembering that tree marking was what the pistols were originally designed for (and are still recoginised as the use in NZ law) so it is not really that original or novel but still a good 'positive' use of them in the public's eyes.

Steven

[Vijil]

Yeah, you could make and sell the erm... Herbiballs. I'll shoot the plants. :)

[dannefaerd]

If he asked around there are probably 'balls already in production.

Something like the "pepper" balls that the Riot police use in the States - out of Tippmans (which would be a much better gun to use than some crappy pump action talon piece of shit)

[Shane396]

Something like the "pepper" balls that the Riot police use in the States - out of Tippmans (which would be a much better gun to use than some crappy pump action talon piece of shit)

Ah btw going at them with an ego or something- very quick work!

EDIT: Oh vijil said that

[FireFox]

Something like the "pepper" balls that the Riot police use in the States - out of Tippmans (which would be a much better gun to use than some crappy pump action talon piece of shit)

The problem with the 'pepper' balls (i.e. perfect circle paintballs, http://www.pcpaintball.com/index.html ) is the shell is plastic and DoC was not keen on having large amounts of small plastic chips all over the island, . Fear that lizards may eat it and it does not decompose where two fears.

The patent (http://www.haveblue.org/tech/patents/US005254379.pdf )
has a way to mix in the biodegradeable agents to the shell but cost may be prohibitive as they already cost in at ~27c a ball +fill if they order 50,000 a go. And you would still have to hand fill them

Then again doing it with a BEPF is a good proof of concept and Tippies are probably stupidly expensive in gunshops

With luck I will be chatting this a bit soon with DoC

S

[brin_vg]

Im sure DOC could organise some sort of deal with wpn or someone to just replace a batches paint fill with pesticide. Probably more cost effective than having some ranger sit there with his syringe sucking paint out, sticking pesticide in..... Saying to himself "Only 49999 to go....."