Inform people about 43 invasive species

There are two hundred and twenty five non-native plants on Midway Atoll with Golden Crownbeard being the most invasive. In 2000 Golden Crownbeard covered 38% of the Eastern Island and 13% of Sand Island. Golden Crownbeard was probably brought to the atoll through seeds in soil imported to Midway.

Golden Crownbeard is an annual flowering shrub in the family Asteraceae. It is native to both North America and the tropics. Golden Crownbeard normally grows from one to five feet tall, but on Midway it grows up to eight feet tall. The vegetation is a grayish-green and the plant may have dozens of half inch wide yellow flowers. The leaves are ovate and half an inch wide, two and a half inches long.

Golden Crownbeard blocks the sun from native plants, competes with them for nutrients and water, though the plant is drought tolerant. Golden Crownbeard also produces chemicals that are harmful to native plants. Each flower produces up to three hundred and fifty seeds. The plant self seeds annually and the seeds are dispersed by the wind.

Midway is home to several species of endangered groundnesting seabirds and Golden Crownbeard decreases their nesting habitat because the birds won’t nest in the Golden Crownbeard stands. Stands of the plant can also grow up quickly around nesting sites preventing adult birds from feeding their chicks and preventing the chicks from getting to the ocean when they are fledging. This causes chicks to starve to death. Golden Crownbeard also hosts aphids and scale insects that attract and feed ants. The ants then may attack chicks or feed on eggs.

A management plan for Golden Crownbeard began on Midway in the 1990s but is very time and labor intensive as most methods of removing the plant would further endanger the seabirds. The program has consisted mostly of hand-pulling the plants, mowing and applying herbicide when possible. Areas where Golden Crownbeard has been removed are planted with native plants.

For more information on Midway Atoll or to help the effort to protect Midway and the seabirds please go to http://www.friendsofmidway.org/

Image from Forest & Kim Starr: http://www.hear.org/starr/

(Information from: http://www.abcbirds.org/conservationissues/threats/invasives/verbesina.html and http://www.friendsofmidway.org/Verbesina_on_Midway_Atoll_Brochure.pdf and personal communication with Christy Finlayson: http://www.umainetoday.umaine.edu/issues/v7i5/student.html)

Giant African snails are thought to come from East Africa originally. These snails are illegal in the continental United States but are often used in science classes. There are also two other species known as giant African snails that are also invasive, the giant Ghana tiger snail (Achatina achatina), and Margie (Archachatina marginata).

Giant African snails are large terrestrial snails which are highly invasive. Known as some of the most damaging snails in the world, Giant African snails are known to eat at least 500 different types of plants, many of which are agricultural and natural resources. The snails have also been known to eat paint and stucco on houses. They also compete with native animals for resources, increase the spread of plant diseases and modify habitats.

When mature they may reach lengths of 8 inches (30cm), a diameter of 4 inches (10cm), and a height of 3 inches (7-8cm). The shell is brown with darker streaks, cone-shaped and when mature has seven to nine whorls. Each snail contains both male and female reproductive organs. One snail can produce up to 1,200 eggs a year. The snails mature in five to fifteen months and can live up to nine years.

Giant African snails have established throughout the IndoPacific Basin, the Hawaiian islands, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Barbados, and Saint Martin.

The snails may carry the rat parasite, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which may be transmitted through injestion or handling live snails and getting snail mucus in the mucus membranes such as in the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The snails disperse when they escape from confinement or are released, through the snails or eggs being tossed out with garden waste, or through movement of plants, soil, building materials, or vehicles. Just one fertilized snail can start a population.

From the USDA APHIS website:

“In 1966, a Miami, FL, boy smuggled three giant African snails into south Florida upon returning from a trip to Hawaii. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden. Seven years later, more than 18,000 snails had been found along with scores of eggs. The Florida State eradication program took 10 years at a cost of $1 million.”

If you have a Giant African land snail please do not release them into the wild, instead turn them in to your State Department of Agriculture. You will not be penalized for doing so.

(From: http://www.massnrc.org/pests/pestFAQsheets/giantafricanlandsnail.html and http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=64&fr=1&sts=sss and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/gas/index.shtml and http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/africansnail.shtml)

(Picture from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_snail_Africa.jpeg)

Native to Asia, it was first reported in western North America in 1924 and in eastern North America in 1951. Populations found in the eastern United States originated from southern Japan. In their native range they cause little damaged to the hemlock trees they feed on, most likely due to natural enemies and host plant resistance.

Hemlock Wooly Adelgids are related to aphids and are in the family Adelgidae. They are less than 1/16-inch (1.5-mm) long. Hemlock Wooly Adelgid vary from dark reddish-brown to purplish-black in color but as they mature they produce a covering of wool-like wax filaments to protect themselves and their eggs from natural enemies and prevent themselves from drying out. Their wool is most obvious when the adelgid is mature and laying eggs. Hemlock Wooly Adelgid are female and produce young through asexual reproduction. They go through a period of dormancy in the summer.

In North America they feed on all types of hemlock but eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) are the most vulnerable. They use their long mouthparts to feed on the sap from the hemlock foliage. This causes the Hemlock’s needles to discolor and drop prematurely, reducing the tree’s growth while the loss of new shoots and needles impairs the tree’s health. Infestations can be fatal to the tree three to ten years, depending on climate and other factors such as stress and disease.

Hemlock Wooly Adelgid is moved by wind, birds, wildlife and through humans moving infected materials such as nursery stock. Moving bird feeders away from hemlocks and removing isolated infested trees from a woodlot can help prevent further infestations. Systemic insecticides can be effective on large trees when applied to the soil around the base of the tree or injected directly into the stem, but this is not possible when large amounts of trees are infected or in sensitive areas and is only a short-term solution. Biological control using predators of the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid from its native range are being researched.

It is found from Georgia to Maine and Westward to kentucky and Tennessee. It is established in sixteen states.

Photo of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid on hemlock: Conneticut Agricultural Experiment Station Archives, Conn. AES.

(From: http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/pest_al/hemlock/hwa05.htm and http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6986.html and http://www.saveourhemlocks.org/)

Originally from Asia, introduced as an ornamental in the early 1900s. Giant Hogweed is a biennial or perennial herb. Similar in appearance to cow parsnip but larger and with shorter hairs(.25mm) on the underside of the leaf. Giant Hogweed is in the carrot or parsley family and grows up to 15 feet tall when flowering. Its hollow stems are two to four inches in diameter. The stems have dark red-purple spots and coarse white bristles. The leaves are deeply incised and compound and can be up to five feet in width. It flowers in mid-May through July. The flowers are white and clustered in an umbrella shape that may be up to two and a half feet in diameter. The fruits are 3/8-inch long, tan, flattened ovals with a broadly rounded base and broad marginal ridges.

The seeds can remain dormant in the soil for at least five years and can be spread to new areas by wind or water. The most common method of transportation to new areas is by people who transport seeds or young plants and sometimes use the dried fruit in decorations. Giant Hogweed prefers moist soil and thus is often found in roadside ditches, stream banks, and along treelines. It crowds out native species and produces toxic sap.

This plant is a public health hazard as it the sap can cause painful, burning blisters 24 to 48 hours after contact with skin. It can also cause blotches that develop into purple-brown scars that can persist for years. These blisters and scars occur when skin that has contacted the sap becomes moist and is then exposed to sunlight. This is known as phytophotodermatitis.

If you need to touch Giant Hogweed use disposable rubber gloves, wear a longsleeved shirt and pants. If you contact the sap, wash the area and avoid sunlight. Call a doctor for severe reactions. Wash any clothes that contact the sap.

In the United States it has been found in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, DC, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

To manage Giant Hogweed please contact the USDA, a professional plant control specialist or your Department of Agriculture. Mowing and cutting are ineffective means of removal due to Giant Hogweed’s large perennial root, which allows it to send up new growth.

Giant Hogweed Hotline: 1-800-292-3939

And this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaV2jwNT0MQ discusses the problems with Giant Hogweed, I found it on http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/

(From: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MDA_Hogweed_Brochure_2_115074_7.pdf and http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsandplants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/giant-hogweed.aspx and http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/outdoors/hogweed/giant_hogweed.htm)

Native to Europe and Northern Africa, the European Starling was introduced to the United States in 1890 as part of a plan to introduce all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare to the United States. The American Acclimatization Society introduced approximately one hundred birds to New York’s Central Park. They are now found throughout the United States, southern Canada and into Mexico. It has also established in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

European Starlings have the ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitats and eat a wide variety of food, mostly insects and fruit. In agricultural areas it will eat grains, seeds, dig up sprouts, and eat livestock feed. When eating livestock feed they also end up contaminating the food and water sources. They form large flocks and have been known to short powerlines with their feces. There may be as many as 200 million Starlings in the United States.

European Starlings are about six inches long with a pointed bill that is yellow, but becomes dark in the fall. Their feathers are black with white spots and green and purple iridescence. They typically produce two broods a year of four to seven young each and are cavity nesting. Adults usually use a woodpecker cavity or natural cavity in a tree, utility pole or fence post. This means Starlings compete with native birds for nesting sites. European Starlings are also very noisy birds.

European Starlings can also carry diseases such as transmissible gastroenteritis, blastomycosis, and salmonella, and transmit them to livestock and humans.

Picture from: http://www.naturespicsonline.com/Nature15/_mg_9259a.htm

(From: http://www.state.tn.us/environment/tn_consv/archive/starlings.htm and http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4930id.html and http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Sturnus_vulgaris.html and http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/eurostarling.shtml)

Native to Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands the brown tree snake was first found in Guam in the late 1940s or early 1950s. It has not established on the continental United States.

Arriving on imported cargo it began to prey on th native lizards and birds of the island. It has killed off most of Guam’s native forest birds. Brown tree snakes are active at night and are excellent climbers. The snakes also cause power outages by climbing on electrical wires.

Because of abundant prey and lack of natural predators, the population grew to the highest density of snakes ever recorded; at twenty or more snakes per acre of jungle.

As an adult the snake can reach lengths of ten feet, but most are three to four feet long. They are semiconstrictors and mildly poisonous and uses both poison and constriction to kill prey. The snakes will strike when aggravated but are not a danger to adult humans. Babies and young children are at risk and should recieve immediate medical attention if bitten.

To prevent its spread Wildlife Services traps snakes in high-risk areas and has snake-detecting dogs to check cargo. People leaving from Guam should check their belongings carefully.

(From: http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/bts.shtml and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_faq_notice/fs_wsbtsnake.html )

Native to Asia, it most likely traveled to the United States on wood packing material in a plane or ship and was first discovered in North America in 2002. It infests and kills ash trees. The adult beetle eats foliage of the Ash tree, but causes little damage. The larvae however feed under the bark, which affects the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. This causes branches, and eventually the tree, to die.

Adult beetles leave the tree through D-shaped exit holes in the bark of branches and trunk. They are 3/8 to 5/8 inch long and 1/8 inch wide. They have a flattened back with metallic green wing covers. Adults are active in May through early September. The larvae are creamy white, legless, with bellshaped body segments. Pictures of both can be found at: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/files/E-2938.pdf

The Emerald Ash Borer has a one or two year life cycle. About two weeks after emerging the females begin to lay eggs on the trees. The larvae hatch in one to two weeks and bore into the bark. They feed for several weeks and then overwinter in the outer bark or first inch of wood. They pupate in early spring.

It has been found in Michigan, Ontario, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.

Monitoring is beginning to be done for the beetle using the beetle hunting wasp, Cerceris fumipennis. Information can be found here: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/fhm/pages/Helpfulwasps—Cercerisfumipennis.htm

To help prevent spread don’t move firewood from one place to another! Most new infestations are through moving infested ash trees, logs, or firewood into uninfested areas.

To report an infested tree or a suspect beetle call your extension office, department of agriculture or the USDA Emerald Ash Borer Hotline toll-free at 1-866-322-4512.

(From: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/files/E2944.pdf and http://www.emeraldashborer.info/ )

The Asian Long-Horned Beetle is a large black beetle with white spots. They are around an inch to an inch and a half long. Its antennae are longer than its body length, are banded with white and have eleven segments. Adults have wings and can fly for short distances.

Originally from Asia the beetle is spread when infested trees and wood products are moved and may have arrived in New York state in wooden packing material shipped from China. It has since been found in New Jersey, Illinois, and Toronto, Canada.

Adults feed on plant shoots. Females bite holes into tree bark and lay their eggs into it. When the eggs hatch the larvae bore into the tree further feeding on the wood until they reach the heartwood where they will pupate until spring. In spring the adult beetle will hatch from the pupae and chew its way out of the tree leaving dime-sized holes. New adults emerge yearly.

They prefer maples, but will also eat horse chestnuts, poplars, willows, elms, and mulberries. The beetles are very destructive and heavy infestations can kill trees.

They have few natural predators in North America and the only real way to deal with an infestation is to cut down the trees and destroy the wood.

To prevent possible transportation of invasive species please do not transport firewood from one area to another, especially over distances greater than 50 miles.

Asian Long-horned beetles are often confused with White-spotted Sawyers, this website has a good comparison of the two: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/alb/pubs/alb_wss/alb_wss.htm
If you believe that you have an Asian Long-Horned Beetle contact your local forestry officials, Cooperative extension or forestry and agriculture department of your local college.

Pictures of all life stages and a great deal of information can be found at: http://www.invasive.org/browse/subject.cfm?sub=2178

(From: http://www.asian-longhorned-beetle.com/index.html and
http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/fhm/pages/firewood.html and http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1INSECTS/asianlhbeetle.html)

Purple loosestrife is a perrenial herb that prefers to grow in moist soil such as in marshes, river and stream banks, pond edges, reservoirs, and in ditches. It has lance-shaped leaves and a woody stem. It produces magenta flower spikes in the summer and can grow from four to ten feet tall. Each plant may produce two to three million, minute seeds per year and also reproduces vegetatively. ””Guaranteed sterile” cultivars of purple loosestrife are actually highly fertile and able to cross freely with purple loosestrife and with other native Lythrum species. Therefore, outside of its native range, purple loosestrife of any form should be avoided.”

Originally from Europe purple loosestrife was introduced to the northeastern U.S. and Canada in the 1800s, for ornamental and medicinal uses. It is still widely sold as an ornamental. Purple loosestrife now occurs in every state except Florida and all Canadian provinces.

Purple loosestrife outcompetes native plants and forms dense, homogeneous stands that are not as nutritious for animals, alteration of the wetlands and reduce habitat for waterfowl.

Small purple loosestrife plants can be pulled before they go to seed. Larger plants should be treated with herbicide. The Galerucella beetle (Galerucella calmariensis) is being used in some areas as biocontrol for purple loosestrife. The beetle is from the native range of purple loosestrife.

Alternative plants that may be planted in place of purple loosestrife are native species of Liatris (blazing star) which are an important source of nectar many native species of butterflies and other insects.

(From: http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/lysa1.htm and http://www.invasiveplants.net/Insects/galerucella.htm)

The multiflora rose is a member of the rose family and is native to Japan, Korea, and eastern China. It is a thorny perennial shrub with leaves that each have five to eleven sharply toothed leaflets. Multiflora rose flowers in may or june. The flowers range from white to pink and grow in clusters. The rose hips form during the summer and remain over the winter. Birds eat the rose hips thus distributing the seeds that the hips contain. The plant reproduces via these seeds and through root sprouting. One plant may produce as many as a million seeds a year and the seeds may remain able to germinate for as many as twenty years.

Multiflora rose was introduced from Japan as rootstock for ornamental roses. It was then used for erosion control and as living fences to keep in livestock.

Multiflora rose can form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. It has invaded the eastern half of the United States and Oregon and California.

To kill the plant cutting or mowing it down can be done three to six times per growing season for two to four years. Application of systemic herbicides to recently cut plants makes this more effective. The area must be watched to ensure that the seeds in the soil don’t germinate and repopulate the area.

Plants that are commonly mistaken for multiflora rose are: pasture rose (Rosa carolina); swamp rose (Rosa palustris); Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis); flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus). It is always best to contact a cooperative extension in your area to make sure your identification is correct and this will also let them know the areas that the plant has invaded.

(From: http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/romu1.htm and http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2509.htm)