We study the nucleation, spreading, and control of irreversible diffusive damage in a 2D fixed-radius random network. The control is achieved via strategic self-destruction. Our studies suggest that rapidly activated aggressive and encompassing self-destruction may provide optimum long-term survival of the network. When the damaged area is sufficiently small, strategic self-destruction may be too dependent on local geometry and the details of the dynamics and hence non-trivial to estimate. Our results reveal broad insights into how it may be possible to combat and control the spreading of problematic effects across fixed-radius random networks. Copyright © EPLA, 2009.