Invasive Insects
A Threat to New York's Forests
Note: DEC Emergency Regulation - Firewood Restrictions to Protect Forests from Invasive Species.
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:
- 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 - The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a non-native insect that attacks all native varieties of ash trees.
- 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.
