Invasive Species

Article and stories about invasive species in our state and other places.

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Building a healthy ecosystem

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I was out at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center earlier today and thinking about how when I own land, I would make it a major priority to eliminate invasive species and plant as many native species as possible and try to maintain a mixed successional landscape to promote healthy wildlife both for hunting, farming and observation purposes.

I doubt I would ever bother having much lawn – grass is good to grow for livestock not beauty. While I wouldn’t be afraid of chemicals and my homestead wouldn’t be organic, I would avoid excess plastic or unnecessary chemicals beyond what is necessary to make my land managent goals a success.

Killing the invasive species is your new pandemic hobby.

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Spotted lanternfly: Killing the invasive species is your new pandemic hobby.

If you need to get your mind off the pandemic for a moment, shift it to another plague sweeping the state: spotted lanternflies. It’s one you can play an immediate, and feel-good, role in fixing. And your mission is pretty simple: Find and kill the invasive species’ eggs. Who’s ready to get smashing?

“Honestly, it’s something fun you can be doing outside right now,” says Shannon Powers, press secretary for the state Department of Agriculture. “If you’ve got kids, keep them occupied by just sending them out and telling them to look for these treasures they need to destroy.”

Seek and Destroy Spotted Lanternfly Eggs – The Allegheny Front

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State to Allegheny, Beaver and 10 Other Counties: Seek and Destroy Spotted Lanternfly Eggs – The Allegheny Front

By adding Allegheny and Beaver Counties, along with ten others in central PA, to the Spotted Lanternfly quarantine zone this month, Pennsylvania agricultural officials are trying to avoid the damage these planthoppers have inflicted in some parts of the state. But controlling lanternflies will take some vigilance by area businesses and residents. LISTEN to the story Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, a war is already on against Spotted Lanternflies. News reports are rife with people who say they’re sick of seeing hundreds of the reddish wings flocking in their trees, or flying in their faces, and of sticky sap raining down in their yards, and have taken to swatting, trapping, and even vacuuming them.