Invasive Insects

Invasive Species - A Threat to New York's Forests

Gypsy Moth
Photograph credit: Louis-Michel Nageleisen,
Département de la Santé des Forêts - France,
www.forestryimages.org

Often arriving as stowaways in the holds of ships, harmful insects and plant seeds may hide amid a variety of trade goods. As global trade and travel increase, we must strive to keep out new invasive species and better manage those already here.

DEC's Forest Health and Protection staff use many tools to fight invasive species threatening our forests:

Survey and detection
Assessing invasive threats
Working with landowners
Control and eradication
Replanting and restoring affected areas
Public education and outreach

Use Local Firewood!
When you transport firewood, you could be spreading invasive forest pests

More about Invasive Insects:

Terrestrial Invasive Species Eradication Grant Program - The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will provide State assistance funding through reimbursement for projects to eradicate terrestrial species identified as being invasive within the boundaries of New York State.
Firewood and Invasive Insects - New York's forests are under attack from numerous invasive exotic insect pests which can be moved around the country on and in firewood.
Asian Longhorned Beetle - The larvae of the Asian Longhorned Beetle feed on the heartwood of mature trees, inhibiting the tree's vascular system and ultimately killing it.
Emerald Ash Borer - Emerald Ash Borer larvae feed in tunnels (called galleries) in the phloem just below the bark, thus disrupting water and nutrient transport, causing branches, and eventually the entire tree, to die.
Hemlock Wooly Adelgid - The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an invasive insect species from Asia that preys on hemlock trees by depriving the tree of vital nutrients.
Sirex Woodwasp - The female Sirex woodwasp injects a toxic mucus and a fungus while she is laying her eggs in the bark of susceptible pine trees, killing tree cells from the egg-laying site upwards, while the fungus feeds on the killed wood, and the insect larva actually feed on the fungus.