Residents and people traveling through Bethel, VT have been witness to a spectacular display of insect webbing.  Entire trees, chain link fences and large patches of ground cover plants are covered with silken webbing – as if someone went overboard with decorations for Halloween.  The scene has prompted calls to the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.

Science Daily reports--

Date:  May 18, 2017

Source: Cambridge University Press

Summary: It is easy to assume that getting rid of invasive plants will allow a local ecosystem to return to its natural state, with native vegetation flourishing once again. However, the impact of weedy invaders can linger for years, a new report outlines.

Will invasive species ruin baseball? 

Well no, not really. However, quite a few people, including Major League Baseball are concerned that they could ruin a part of baseball tradition. The enemy this time is the emerald ash borer. The metallic green beetle should not be anywhere in the United States but it hitched rides over to our country using our modern methods of transportation. More specifically, this beetle came by way of cargo ships across the ocean.

An emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) larvae is revealed successfully developing in the wood of a cultivated olive tree—adding a second species to the list of non-ash trees that the invasive insect can attack.

The USDA Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team has released a  Field Guide for the Biological Control of Weeds in Eastern North America. This guide includes a quick search by flower color (non-flowering are gray), discusses basic plant and biocontrol biology, and has a symbol-driven efficacy quick guide (status for individual biocontrols: high-low priority, caution with redistribution, illegal to redistribute, no establishment, failed to establish). 

The Stowe Land Trust is working on a multiyear effort to restore native diversity and habitats to 50 acres of conserved land on the DuMont Meadow property at the end of Adams Mill Road.

Although other aquatic invasives have been the topic of conversation in recent years, zebra mussels still remain as one of, if not the biggest, threat to many of Vermont's waters. 

A new study of the flight capacity of the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) found it to have an average flight distance of 1.4 miles in a 24-hour period, but some could fly as far as 8.5 miles in that span. 

Experts are expecting that white pine needle damage in Vermont this year may be worse than previous years. Vermont may be the only northern New England state to see such an increase.

"Climate change may force one of New England’s invasive plant species to retreat north, while another will likely stay put and take over an even greater area, according to a new study by UConn faculty and former doctoral candidates.

Garlic mustard may disappear from the southern part of New England only to crop up in Canada, while Japanese barberry takes hold of the region."