SciencePrickly Pear Spread Over 24 Million Hectares in Australia by 1920s
Prickly pear cactus was introduced to Australia in 1788 by the First Fleet to establish a cochineal dye industry using insects from Brazil. Although the dye plan failed, the cactus thrived and spread widely. By the 1920s, prickly pear had invaded 24.3 million hectares across New South Wales and Queensland, rendering land unusable for farming until moths were released in 1926 to control it.
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