Maybe I've just seen "Little Shop of Horrors" too many times but "interesting" seems a less accurate attitude for me towards these discoveries than kill it with fire!

Though as long as insects are the primary target I'm prepared to entertain the option of a cautious cold war rather than all-out destruction.

However, the Andromeda Strain should also teach to not so quickly use fire.

Wow, yes. It's been too long since I've read that book. It was very formative for me when I read it in school long ago, and at least twice more since, but it has to have been nearly 20 years.

Have you happened to read the recent sequel, and if so how was it? I was kind of put off of Crichton by his later works after the original Jurassic Park (as usual, better than the movie)

I know the sequel was not completely Crighton's own work, but I did mostly enjoy Robopocalypse, so I'm wondering if it's worth my time ( and money: I mostly do audiobooks these days, which are a lot more expensive)

Sorry, never read that, but I've seen 2 different screen adaptations of Andromeda Strain, and neither of them would be considered "good". The most recent version was made for TV, so not as large of a budget as a true feature and more disappointing that it wasn't better than it was for being the redo.

However, since this is carneverous plant stuff, if they start getting too big for their britches, we can use dandruff shampoo according to sily scifi plot lines instead of fire. That way it won't get out of control. The lastly, since we're not sure the effect of fire, it might be best to just take off and nuke it from orbit.

I haven't read any of the above, but while we're on the topic of dangerous fictional flora, I can recommend:

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

The sequel also makes a good read. The human angle might be slightly overplayed, but it hits the Crichton style quite well with computer analysis, foreshadowing and the tech dread.

Of the later works, Dragon Teeth (posthumously published) is worth checking out - no high tech but more a scientific western story.

Most of his other books were very worth reading though.

Sigh. Duly upvoted. If only our friends on HN were a little bit more alert to humor.

If what you want to read is a reddit kill it with fire joke thread you can just go to reddit. There's nothing wrong with wanting that, but there's no need to wish for it or encourage it here.

Man, don’t be that guy… wait, never mind

Very true. We must never deviate from strict adherence to strict seriousness at all times on HN to avoid any appearance that we're a community of human beings that occasionally enjoy humour or meme-ish content. It's the only way to maximize our useless internet points.

This clearly wasn't a reddit "Kill it with fire!!!" post.

There was a whole 2nd graph talking about consideration of how a kill-it-with-fire decision would affect other living things, non-human even. Clearly more thought than a reddit post would have given. Seeing how reddit is deem such low class on this esteemed and high class board.