The pest feeds on a wide range of crops and plants, highlighting grapes and hops – which experts say could potentially impact the production of Mountain State alcoholic beverages.
An invasive insect now found in eight eastern West Virginia counties could affect the state’s wine and beer industries, according to experts.
The state Department of Agriculture says Taylor County has been added to the list of counties finding Spotted Lanternfly in their midst. The other counties include Hancock, Brooke, Mineral, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson.
The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive plant hopper that is native to China and arrived in North America hidden on goods imported from Asia. The pest’s main source of food is the non-native “Tree of Heaven,” but it feeds on a wide range of crops and plants, highlighting grapes and hops – which experts say could potentially impact the production of Mountain State alcoholic beverages.
“The WVDA is working closely with federal agencies to identify and treat areas where spotted Lanternfly is found,” West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt said. “However, with no known native predators, Spotted Lanternfly will continue to spread across our state, impacting agriculture industries and private property. We hope a more robust federal effort to contain and slow the spread of these insects will be initiated soon.”
The Agriculture Department says it has had some success in treating infested areas with insecticide.
Spotted Lanternfly can travel short distances on their own, but their main mode of movement is hitchhiking. Those who travel to an area with Spotted Lanternfly populations are asked to carefully inspect their vehicles, trailers, boats, ATVs, and any other surfaces for hitchhikers before they head home.
For more information on Spotted Lanternfly, click here. To report a spotted lanternfly sighting, send a photo, your location, and contact information to bugbusters@wvda.us or call 304-558-2212.
West Virginia may be “wild and wonderful,” but not everything growing in our forests is supposed to be here. News Director Eric Douglas takes us on a nature walk in Kanawha State Forest to learn about the native and non-native plants right under our feet.
West Virginia may be “wild and wonderful,” but not everything growing in our forests is supposed to be here. There are many invasive plants that are crowding out the native ones.
Gov. Jim Justice proclaimed April as Native Plant Month as part of a national drive that got the movement going in just a few months time. The Kanawha Garden Club, the Garden Club of America and the Native Plant Society were behind the effort to achieve the designation.
Beverly Campbell, from the Kanawha Garden Club, explained that the effort began with an idea last spring in Columbus, Ohio. It only landed in West Virginia last November but spread quickly, landing on the governor’s desk this winter.
“This is to spread knowledge, awareness and education on native plants,” she said. “We have 42 states that have declared April as native plant month as of today.”
A native species to West Virginia that looks similar to bamboo. Credit: Eric Douglas/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
She said there were approximately 200 Garden Clubs of America in the U.S. but only one in West Virginia and that is the one in Kanawha County.
The issue is twofold — recognizing what is native and supporting that while identifying the non-native species and keeping those in check. They can be harmful to the native species and wildlife.
“This display shows some of the more common non-native invasives in West Virginia,” said Luanne McGovern, the president of the West Virginia Native Plant Society. “And these are taking over in some places quite bad. Garlic Mustard, probably everybody has that beside the road or in their garden. Japanese Stiltgrass. I’ve seen this way out in the wilderness. It’s amazing how it’s just everywhere.”
She explained that forest ecosystems develop over thousands of years and the plants, bugs and birds evolve together. When non-natives come in, the animals don’t know what to do with it.
Non-native species find their way to West Virginia for a number of reasons. Some actually came here as packing materials in shipping containers.
One problem facing the native species is they may not be as aggressive growers or as prominent as some of the newly introduced varieties. During a recent walk in the woods, McGovern pointed out a small field.
A small iron deposit gives the waters of Davis Creek a rusty look with an oily sheen provided by bacteria that eat the iron. Credit: Eric Douglas/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Here we have Trillium, Greek valerian, Celandine poppies,” she said. “Oh, there’s a blood root. Of course all the ferns grow together in this great wild. Geranium, violets I mean, all within like 10 feet, right in this fabulous ecosystem out here.”
Kanawha State Forest has an arboretum area where volunteers bring together native species and trees to highlight their contributions. Native Plant Society board member Chris Gatens pointed out one species that closely resembled a non-native plant, but actually had its origins in the same area as the forest.
“The Canebrake is a native woody grass,” he said. “And it’s native to the Davis Creek watershed and Kanawha County. This was from the restoration project probably 15 years ago. We obtained this from a flooded area on Campbell’s Creek and brought it over here and established it.”
The Canebrake closely resembles the Asian bamboo.
There are many commonly known invasive plants like multiflora rose, which was brought to the U.S. as natural fencing and just kept growing. But one many don’t realize is invasive is the Japanese honeysuckle that lines roadways all around the state. As Gatens said, “It’s been around a long time and it’s really hard on plants.”
He explained that honeysuckle and other vines like poison ivy climb up and choke out trees and shrubs.
“We’ve got a spicebush and it’s sort of suffering because this thing is over shadowing it,” he said. “And this is a bladdernut here. It’s a beautiful native shrub in the shady areas of the forest, and it’s being overtopped by this Japanese honeysuckle.”
Unfortunately, the only way to deal with most of the invasive species is manual labor, spraying, burning or pulling them up.
Gatens noted that when dealing with vines climbing trees, it is best to cut them out at the roots, but leave the vines attached to the trees. The tree will grow and push the vines out without damaging the tree bark.
Campbell did note that she carries a small, electric chainsaw with her to cut invasive vines at the base.
Invasive honeysuckle vines can choke out native trees. Credit: Eric Douglas/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
State officials have confirmed an invasive pest known to feed on a wide range of crops and trees has been found in West Virginia for the first time.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture said in a press release released Wednesday that the Spotted Lanternfly was discovered in the Bunker Hill area of Berkeley County in late October.
The black, white and red winged planthopper is native to China and other Asian countries and likely hitched a ride on overseas cargo to the U.S. The agency said the invasive insect prefers to feed on Tree-of-Heaven trees as well as apples, walnuts, grapes and hardwood trees.
Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said the agency is most concerned about orchards and wineries in the Eastern Panhandle. The agency said it will begin treatments to contain the insect in the spring.
“We have been surveying for this invasive pest for the past two years. We knew it was only a matter of time until the Spotted Lanternfly made it to our state,” Leonhardt stated. “The next step is to ask for formal assistance from our federal and state partners to put together an action plan to combat this pest.”
The agency said landowners should be on the lookout for masses of eggs, especially on land with multiple Tree-of-Heaven, which is a palm-tree looking plant that some say smells like peanut butter.
The majority of ants entering the United States are coming not from their native countries, but from other regions, according to a new U.S. Forest Service study released this week, co-authored by a Morgantown entomologist.
Over the past two centuries, more than 400 insects have invaded the U.S. Some of those include ants. And although they are little, ants can cause big ecological problems worldwide including triggering outbreaks of sap-feeding insects because some non-native ant species keep away parasites.
Some non-native ant species displace native ants, which can cause decline in native plant species that depend on those species for pollination. Some, like the red imported fire ant, are highly venomous.
An international team of researchers looked at more than 70 years of data collected by the U.S. and New Zealand. The data tracked when USDA inspectors found ants at air and maritime ports of entry.
Between 1914 and 1984, ants were found more than 1,400 times at U.S. ports. More than three-quarters of those ant species came from shipments outside their native range.
Andrew Liebhold, a research entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station in Morgantown, who was a co-author of the study, said that was surprising. The data showed most of the ants intercepted at U.S. ports are African species, but they weren’t stowing away with goods from Africa.
“What seems to happens is that these species is they initially invade one part of the world and then those parts of the world basically serve as jumping off points for the rest of the world,” he said.
Most U.S. ant invaders, for example, are coming from Latin America.
Leibhold said it’s a bit of mystery as to why ants are coming from outside their native range. One reason might be that certain parts of the world are more connected through trade.
As a result, ants, like most other things, may have gone global, he said.
By having a better understanding of what species are coming into U.S. ports and from where, officials may be able to better prevent invasive ants from entering the country. Port officials, for example, could set up more detailed screening protocols for goods coming from certain ant-prone places or encourage more cleaning of certain imports.
Researchers from the University of Lausanne, University of Paris-Sud, the New Zealand Forest Research Institute and Landcare Research also participated. The study was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
West Virginia’s Department of Agriculture has established an email where the state’s residents can send pictures and descriptions of a suspected invasive pest, as well as their locations and any related damage to buildings or plants.
Department officials say landowners who email information to bugbusters@wvda.us will be notified if their tip raises concerns and someone from the agency will visit the site.
Agriculture authorities note two destructive insects, the Asian longhorned beetle and the spotted lanternfly, are on the watch list for invasive species in West Virginia.
The beetle was first found in Brooklyn in 1996 and has since been detected in several locations including Clermont County, Ohio.
The lanternfly was first discovered in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 2014, and detected in Delaware in November.
The state Department of Agriculture’s proposed list of restricted pets in West Virginia was revisited by members of the Legislative Rule Making Committee yesterday.
After intense criticism from the public and conflict between members of the Committee and the Department of Agriculture, Senator Herb Snyder proposed an amendment Monday removing a handful of animals from the list.
He told members of the committee his amendment’s intent was to bring the restricted list back to being about dangerous animals or invasive species that could cause environmental or physical harm to West Virginians, things like crayfish.
The committee also removed certain types of snakes from the restricted list, but West Virginians won’t be allowed to keep poisonous snakes like copperheads as pets.
West Virginians who already own animals that may soon be on the restricted list must get a permit to keep their pet.
The new rule will go before the full Legislature in January for approval before it takes effect.
