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Displaying 241 to 260 of 658
Great Lakes Commission Shares Lessons Learned from Fight Against Internet Sales of Aquatic Invasive Species
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Jul 12, 2022
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Great Lakes Commission.
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The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) released a report on the second phase of its work to stop internet sales of aquatic invasive species (AIS) in the Great Lakes region. The GLC initiative, known as the Great Lakes Detector of Invasive Aquatics in Trade (GLDIATR), demonstrated that “web crawling” applications can be used to track the online sale of priority AIS and support the work of AIS researchers, outreach coordinators, managers, and law enforcement officials across the Great Lakes basin.
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Great Lakes Detector of Invasive Species in Trade (GLDIATR)
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Great Lakes Commission.
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The Great Lakes Detector of Invasive Aquatics in Trade (GLDIATR) is an innovative approach developed by the Great Lakes Commission that uses advanced technology to search the internet for sites where aquatic invasive species can be purchased and shipped to the Great Lakes region. This information can be used by invasive species managers to inform and help target a variety of activities including outreach and education, risk assessment, monitoring and surveillance, and enforcement.
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Green Crab Detected in Alaska for the First Time
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Aug 24, 2022
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DOC. NOAA. Fisheries.
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The green crab is an invasive marine species spreading throughout the coastal waters of the United States. Efforts between NOAA Fisheries and Metlakatla Indian Community have been leading the way on monitoring to detect this species’ presence in Alaskan waters. The green crab has been found in U.S. waters since the 1800s, but this is the first confirmed presence in Alaska. They are a serious threat for Alaska’s tidal habitats.
If you see an invasive green crab on Annette Islands Reserve, call (907) 886-FISH to make a report. If you encounter a potential green crab elsewhere in Alaska, take photographs from multiple angles and send them to Tammy Davis. Then submit a report to the Alaska Invasive Species Reporter, or call the Invasive Species Hotline: (877) INVASIV.
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Guard Your Green: Invasive Plant Pests Threaten Your Community’s Trees and Gardens
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Apr 5, 2024
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USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proclaims April 2024 as Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month. During this month, we are encouraging everyone—whether you’re a gardener or a camper, a bug enthusiast or a student, a traveler, or an online shopper—to learn about the danger of invasive plant pests and what you can do to help. During the month, we are sharing information on curbing the spread of these pests to foster a healthier environment and protect our food supply.
See also: A Proclamation by the Secretary of Agriculture for 2024 Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month [PDF, 189 KB]
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Gypsy Moths Are Making A Comeback in Vermont. Why?
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Jun 7, 2021
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Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets.
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Many people in Vermont are encountering gypsy moths (GM) for the first time. This invasive species arrived in the United States over 100 years ago and has been expanding its range ever since. They can be significant defoliators (leaf eaters) of trees and shrubs. They prefer oak trees, but when there are a lot of caterpillars around they will eat any type of leaf, including maple and pine. Vermont has not seen an outbreak of GM since 1991. At that time a fungus called Entomophaga maimaiga became prevalent in the area and significantly decreased the GM population. But the dry weather that we’ve experienced over the last few years has not been good for fungi, and the absence of fungi has allowed the GM numbers to increase.
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Habitattitude: Protect Our Environment (U.S.)
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Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council; DOI. Fish and Wildlife Service; DOC. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Habits, Attitude, and Habitat—together they comprise Habitattitude. This educational campaign with the uncommon name addresses common concerns of private enterprise, state and federal natural resource agencies, and responsible pet owners: protecting our environment from the impacts of invasive species. Habitattitude seeks to inspire and empower people to explore the connection between responsible pet ownership and environmental stewardship.
Habitattitude Prevents Pet Release in Wild (June 12, 2019) announces the re-launch of the Habitattitude educational campaign. Habitattitude’s website provides guidance for proper pet selection and care, along with sections on aquarium fish and water gardening. The new section on reptiles and amphibians addresses the variety of species and basic considerations and requirements for habitat, diet and health concerns. Another new component focuses on animals and plants in classroom education, and caring for them outside the home environment, in response to concerns about the potential for classroom pets to be released at the end of a school year.
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Help Stop the Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species in Wyoming
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Mar 7, 2022
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Wyoming Game & Fish Department.
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The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is offering training for members of the public to become a certified Wyoming aquatic invasive species inspector. The free, day-long sessions are offered throughout the spring in statewide locations and are open to anyone interested in preventing the spread of AIS through watercraft inspection. The training includes information on basic biology of invasive species, the impacts of AIS, transport vectors and distribution of AIS. It includes classroom instruction, a question-and-answer session and a hands-on watercraft inspection exercise. Those who complete the class will be certified to inspect watercraft.
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Help Stop the Spread of Invasive Species
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Recreation.gov
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Learn simple steps you can take to prevent the spread of invasive species when you recreate outdoors.
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Help USDA Estimate Feral Swine Damage to U.S. Agriculture
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Jul 22, 2022
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USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), in coordination with the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, is conducting a Feral Swine Survey. NASS mailed questionnaires to more than 11,000 producers growing corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, peanuts, and sorghum in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas during the last week of June 2022. If you or someone you know received a survey, please be sure to send in your responses by August 12, 2022. Use the Respondent Portal to complete surveys, track upcoming surveys, view data visualizations and reports, and more.
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Hemlock Woolly Adelgids & Their Predator Beetle, Laricobius nigrinus
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Sep 22, 2020
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USDA. FS. Southern Research Station. CompassLive.
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Laricobius nigrinus is a small beetle that eats an even smaller bug – the hemlock woolly adelgid, or HWA. Since 2003, Laricobius has been used to help control HWA. But the beetle, which is native to western North America, is only active during the fall, winter and early spring. Recently, USDA Forest Service research entomologist Bud Mayfield and his colleagues, including students and prominent researchers, published the results of a six-year collaboration on Laricobius as biocontrol.
Silvicultural recommendations for managing HWA are still in development. But when they are available, Mayfield and his colleagues plan to update their resource manager’s guide. They wrote the guide for managers who want to use an integrated pest management strategy to control hemlock woolly adelgids.
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High-Impact Invasive Plants Expanding into Mid-Atlantic States
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Jan 19, 2024
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University of Massachusetts Amherst. Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center.
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With climate change, many invasive plants are projected to shift their ranges, creating hotspots of future invasions across the U.S. Knowing the identities of new invasive plants headed to a nearby state creates an opportunity for proactive prevention and management. Unfortunately, monitoring for and managing all range-shifting invasive plants is untenable. To help prioritize range-shifting species, Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center researchers performed impact assessments on 104 plants projected to expand into one or more mid-Atlantic states by 2040 with climate change. Their study was recently published (Oct 6, 2023) in Invasive Plant Science and Management "High-impact invasive plants expanding into mid-Atlantic states: identifying priority range-shifting species for monitoring in light of climate change."
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History Highlight: APHIS Establishes National Program to Combat Destructive Feral Swine
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Jun 22, 2022
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USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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Wild boar, razorback, feral hog, wild pig—those are just a few of the names for one of the most destructive, formidable invasive species in the United States. Estimates vary, but their population likely exceeds 6 million nationwide. They cause tremendous damage—up to $2.5 billion annually—to crops, forestry, livestock, and pastures.
To combat these threats, APHIS established the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program in 2014. The program’s overarching goal is to protect agricultural and natural resources, property, animal health, and human health and safety by managing feral swine damage. APHIS collaborates with many stakeholders—including States, Tribes, other Federal agencies, universities, and the public—to accomplish this goal.
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History Highlight: APHIS Launches Large-Scale Boll Weevil Eradication Program
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Apr 18, 2022
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USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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Few agricultural commodities have defined America the way cotton has. And few agricultural pests have been as destructive and downright insidious as the boll weevil, a small insect that lives and feeds on cotton bolls and flowers and reproduces very quickly.
The national cooperative boll weevil eradication program is widely considered to be one of the most consequential agricultural programs in U.S. history. To date, APHIS, State agencies, and the cotton industry have eradicated this pest from more than 98 percent of U.S. cotton acreage.
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History Highlight: APHISBattles Mediterranean Fruit Fly
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May 16, 2022
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USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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The Medfly is one of the world’s most destructive pests, attacking over 200 fruits and vegetables. In June 1980, it was discovered in two highly populated urban areas in the Santa Clara Valley of northern California. APHIS and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) began eradication activities within days. However, the overall eradication program lasted more than 27 months—and APHIS and CDFA needed to adjust and adapt their methods along the way to achieve success.
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Hitchhiking Seeds Pose Substantial Risk of Nonnative Plant Invasions
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Sep 29, 2020
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USDA. FS. Southern Research Station. CompassLive.
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Seeds that float in the air can hitchhike in unusual places – like the air-intake grille of a refrigerated shipping container. A team of researchers from the USDA Forest Service, Arkansas State University, and other organizations recently conducted a study that involved vacuuming seeds from air-intake grilles over two seasons at the Port of Savannah, Georgia. The viability of such seeds is of significant interest to federal regulatory and enforcement agencies, and the project required a shared stewardship approach. Their findings were recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Seeds from 30 plant taxa were collected from the air-intake grilles, including seeds of wild sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum), a grass on the USDA Federal Noxious Weed List. Federal noxious weeds pose immediate, significant threats to agriculture, nursery, and forestry industries. Although a lovely grass and useful in its native range, wild sugarcane has the potential to join cogongrass, stiltgrass, and other nonnative species that have become extremely widespread in the U.S.
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How Do You Confuse a Sharpshooter?
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Aug 19, 2019
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USDA. ARS. Tellus.
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Rodrigo Krugner, an entomologist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Parlier, California, has found an innovative way to control insect pests in California vineyards: tapping into the vibrational signals they use as mating calls.
Krugner’s efforts have mainly focused on glassy-winged sharpshooters, which spread a bacterium that causes Pierce’s disease in vineyards and costs the California grape industry an estimated $104 million a year. Growers use chemical sprays to control the pests, but insecticides also kill beneficial insects, leave residues, and become less effective as the insects develop resistance.
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How Does Climate Change Affect the Challenge of Invasive Species?
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DOI. United States Geological Survey.
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Changing climate conditions have bearing on every aspect of biological invasions, in some cases worsening existing problems. Climate change is creating new pathways for invasive species to be introduced, such as shipping routes that open up as sea ice retreats. Warmer temperatures can allow existing invasive species to expand their range into habitat that is currently too cool. Similarly, impacts to native species and people may change if new conditions affect invasive species abundance. Climate change may make existing invasive species control tools less effective, such as aquatic barriers that require minimum water flows.
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How Much Are Invasive Species Costing Us?
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Mar 31, 2021
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French National Centre for Scientific Research.
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Scientists from the CNRS, the IRD, and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle have just released the most comprehensive estimate to date of the financial toll of invasive species: nearly $1.3 trillion over four decades. Published in Nature (31 March 2021), their findings are based on the InvaCost database, which is financed by the BNP Paribas Foundation and the Paris-Saclay University Foundation’s AXA Chair of Invasion Biology. The annual expenses generated by biological invasions are only increasing, with no sign of any slowing.
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How Swaths of Invasive Grass Made Maui’s Fires So Devastating
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Aug 15, 2023
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Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Magazine.
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Scientists have long warned that Hawaii’s cover of nonnative shrubs is kindling waiting to burn.
See also: Additional Invasive Species related articlesLearn how the U.S. government is responding to the Hawaii wildfires affecting Maui and the Big Island.
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How to Save the Florida Citrus Industry?
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Apr 24, 2023
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USDA. ARS. Tellus.
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Imagine a devastating plant disease that sweeps the land, decimating crops. For Florida’s citrus growers, that apocalyptic vision is not a horror movie, but a reality: since it was first identified in the Sunshine State in 2005, citrus greening disease has reduced Florida’s citrus production by a whopping 70%. Without any treatment or cure available, desperate growers have cut down infected trees or abandoned their groves entirely. Scientists have been racing to come up with a solution. Now, an ARS research team believes it may have one, in the form of: stingrays.
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