Invasive Insects in the News

I feel like I decided to leave New York City just in time to avoid the near-panic about bedbugs that's taken place in the past six months or so.  There's no doubt that bed bugs (or more locally, stink bugs) have dominated the press lately, as far as articles about insects go.

That's why I was pleased to see an article in the Post today about the invasive insects that don't threaten our bedrooms, but instead, our local forests and greenswards.  The article briefly reviews the recent attention paid to combating the Asian longhorn beetle (or ALB in industry shorthand), the emerald ash borer and the Asian gypsy moth. 

New York has been vigilant in keeping the ALB at bay.  They have developed "wanted" posters that are frequently seen at the subway stations and provided more information elsewhere. (Check out infographic's breakdown of one such poster -- the information is a very comprehensive but condensed description of the ALB threat.) My favorite anti-ALB propaganda is a card that mimics a metrocard and has an ALB identification checklist on it, with a scaled shothole you can use to inspect the trunks of your local trees for boring damage.  Chicago has also been a leader in educating the public about these insects and protecting their trees and even has it's own (anti) EAB blog. 

At NYPAOS, I blogged about the intricacies in forming an only-native plants stance or not.  One reason people advocate using only native plants is that foreign plant materials can bring foreign pests or diseases.   But with the pests mentioned above, they have stowed away on pallets and other ornamental stock and are not a by-product of the ornamental use of exotic species.  Unfortunately, our global economy dictates that materials are shipped from one end of the planet to the other, and there are (ahem, sorry for this) inherent bugs in the system.  What's most important to me is not selecting native plants but instead, advocating for municipalities and state and federal government to strengthen its surveillance of shipments and be prepared to respond as quickly and comprehensively as possible when an threatening pest is detected.