Leave invasive species behind
It’s vacation season— time to hit the beaches, the woods and the mountains.
When you head home from those outings, make sure you don’t return with unwanted guests — pests that hitch a ride in your car or pretty plants that can soon pose problems.
Because hitch-hiking pests are particularly troublesome, the United States Department of Agriculture has launched a nationwide campaign called “Leave Hungry Pests Behind,” hoping to warn travelers to check their clothes, their luggage, their vehicle for bad bugs before hitting the highway homeward.
“Look at your tent, hiking boots, your truck bed, your beach towels, your suitcases — everything and anything,” said Rebecca Blue, deputy under secretary of the USDA, during a recent visit to Norfolk, Va. She was there to accompany Chinese officials checking out the inspection process at the ports; nematodes have been found in Virginia pine wood going to China, so the country has not been accepting the lumber since April 2011.
“Pests are hitchhikers you don’t want to bring home,” she says.
Like the Giant African land snail, a native of Kenya and Tanzania, that’s become a slimy invader in sunny South Florida. No one knows how it originally arrived there, but within three months, officials have collected more than 33,000 of the massive mollusks, according to an Organic Gardening magazine article. Live adults are transported illegally in this country for food and as pets.
“I find it the most fascinating one of all,” says Blue.
“It starts out the size of a pea and grows to be the size of your hand. It eats 500 different kinds of plants and the stucco on your house. It’s not a fun one to deal with.”
To return home without hungry pests or invasive plants, the USDA recommends:
• Buy local, burn local. Invasive pests and larvae can hide and ride long distances in firewood. Don’t give them a free ride to start a new infestation — buy firewood where you burn it.
• Plant carefully. Buy your plants from a reputable source and avoid using invasive plant species at all costs.
• Do not bring or mail fresh fruits, vegetables, or plants into your state or another state unless agricultural inspectors have cleared them beforehand.
• Cooperate with any agricultural quarantine restrictions and allow authorized agricultural workers access to your property for pest or disease surveys.
• Keep it clean. Wash outdoor gear and tires between fishing, hunting or camping trips. Clean lawn furniture and other outdoor items when moving from one home to another.
• Learn to identify. If you see signs of an invasive pest or disease, write down or take a picture of what you see, and then report it at www. HungryPests.com where you can also learn to ID bad bugs
• Speak up. Declare all agricultural items to customs officials when returning from international travel. Call USDA to find out what’s allowed: • (301) 851-2046 for plants • (301) 851-3300 for animals Online: • USDA interactive Pest Tracker Map: http:// hungrypests.com/the-spread/
• Alien Plant Invaders of Natural Areas: http:// www. nps. gov/ plants/ alien/ factmain.htm#pllists . (Passiflora incarnata), coral or Clayton honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and native bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) have attractive flowers and fruits, provide food for wildlife and make excellent substitutes, according to native plant experts.
Native plants are disappearing at an alarming rate due to habitat destruction from development and the spraying and mowing alongside roads and railways, according to Jan Newton of Williamsburg, Va., education chair for the Virginia Native Plant Society —www.vnps.org.
“Research shows that currently there are not enough native plants to sustain our native and migrating wildlife and that within the next two decades there will be many extinctions in the animal world as a result,” she says.
“We need to plant regionally native plants in our home and commercial landscapes to help with this crisis.”
Increasingly, the United States has become home to more and more alien species — 4,000 nationwide with 400 as serious invaders, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation.
Half of the invaders came here for horticultural uses while the remainder arrived accidentally in seed mixes, packaging materials, ships ballasts and by other means, according to the department’s website.