By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — When we think of invasive species, we might tend to think of invasive plants — such as buckthorn, garlic mustard or wild parsnip — but insects can be invasive too.
People are at the core of the problem with invasive species, but people also can be the solution, said Arthur Kneeland, an entomologist at UW-Stout and the keynote speaker for the Lower Chippewa Invasives Partnership annual meeting March 25.
The annual meeting was held by Zoom with about 40 people attending.
LCIP also was celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Kneeland, who teaches a “plants and people” class at UW-Stout, noted that the Lower Chippewa Invasives Partnership “has created a culture of proper management of shared landscapes.”
LCIP is a nonprofit organization consisting of citizens, agencies, businesses and organizations working together to educate the public about invasive species and to work on control of invasive species in West Central Wisconsin.
LCIP provides tours and workshops during the summer to help people learn to identify invasives.
LCIP also works with individual landowners to do site visits, to make an inventory of invasive species and to identify some next steps toward a plan for removing the invasive plants.
The organization works with corporations, too, such as Andersen Windows and 3M, on projects using volunteers from the companies, such as cleaning up a park.
Maps
No matter whether it is invasive plants or invasive insects, one important factor in controlling the invasive is to know where it is causing a problem.
WISTIPP is an online tool for accessing invasive plant reports in Wisconsin, Kneeland said.
Another tool is iNaturalist, an application for a smart phone that allows you to take pictures with your phone, helps you to identify the species, and then feeds the information into invasive species maps to help identify where invasive species are located, he said.
Lanternfly
Although none of the invasive insects Kneeland spoke about are posing a direct threat to West Central Wisconsin in the immediate future — that we know of — and with the exception of the jumping worm — a warming climate could push them in this direction.
One of those insects is the spotted lanternfly.
With its spots and bright red wings, the spotted lanternfly does not look destructive but it poses a threat to fruit production, Kneeland said.
The spotted lanternfly impacts grapevines, ornamental trees, apples, fruit trees — and all Rosaceae plants, which includes stone fruits, such as peaches and apricots and plums; bramble fruits such as blackberries and raspberries; roses; and strawberries.
Climate change could push the spotted lanternfly north so that it becomes a problem here, Kneeland said.
Ticks
The Asian Longhorned Tick is another invasive insect that could eventually pose a problem here.
Currently the Asian Longhorned Tick is found along the east coast of the United States, and according to a map Kneeland showed during his presentation, Wisconsin has a “moderate risk” of eventually seeing the tick.
The problem with the Asian Longhorned Tick is that it reproduces asexually, meaning that the population can explode in a short period of time, Kneeland said.
The Asian Longhorned Tick carries many of the common tick diseases, he said.
And speaking of tick disease, Lyme disease is a good example of how human activity likely helped to spread the disease, Kneeland said.
When people started moving into more rural developments, they eliminated or pushed out the predators that would have kept the mice and deer populations in check so that the ticks carrying Lyme disease had an abundance of hosts, he said.
The mice and the deer then were able to spread the ticks carrying Lyme disease to the dogs and the cats that belonged to the people living in the rural developments, Kneeland explained.
Jumping worms
Although the map of invasives shows the jumping worm in the counties of western Minnesota but not in Wisconsin, with any invasive species, it is highly unlikely they are only going to follow state lines, Kneeland said.
The more likely explanation is that Minnesota is doing a much better job of mapping the presence of the jumping worm, he said
During Kneeland’s presentation, a participant who lives in Eau Claire typed in a comment that she had friends with gardens in Eau Claire who had jumping worms.
While Kneeland said he would like to see a jumping worm, he really would not like to see one out in the landscape.
Jumping worms look like an ordinary earthworm, except with a broad white band, but their defining feature is the way they move — more like a snake rather a worm. The reason jumping worms are considered destructive is because they deplete the nutrients from the soil, leaving it looking like coffee grounds.
People are already cautious about moving around logs because of the insects that could be transported from one area to the next, and in the same way, people must become cautious about moving soil around to keep from spreading species like the jumping worm, Kneeland said.
Stink bugs
The brown marmorated stink bug is another invasive species that could eventually pose problems in Wisconsin.
Although the brown marmorated stink bug has been detected in nearly every state in the country, the largest concentrations of them are in the eastern one-third of the United States.
The brown marmorated stink bug affects tree fruit production as well as some vegetables and other crops, Kneeland said.
As you might presume from the name, the stink bug gives off an unpleasant odor.
According to online sources, although the brown marmorated stink bug does not pose a threat to humans or animals, when present in large numbers, they can invade homes in the fall, looking for a place to spend the winter.
Fruit flies
The spotted wing drosophila has unusual behavior for a fruit fly, Kneeland said.
Instead of laying eggs on ripe fruit or fruit that is starting to rot, like other fruit flies do, the spotted wing drosophila prefers to lay eggs on almost ripe fruit and cuts into the fruit to lay the eggs inside, he said.
According to an article posted on the University of Massachusetts website, the spotted wing drosophila was first detected on the west coast of the United States in 2008 and was found in New England in 2011 and caused significant crop damage in fall raspberries and other crops.
There are two possible parasitoid wasps that could help control the spotted wing drosophila, Kneeland said.
The parasitoid wasps depend on the nectar and pollen of wildflowers to survive, so encouraging wildflower growth would help the wasps, he said.
Emerald ash borer
The emerald ash borer is an invasive species causing problems much closer to home, although the emerald ash borer has not yet been detected in Dunn County, Kneeland said.
The emerald ash borer damages ash trees so that smaller trees may die in one or two years while larger trees will die in three or four years.
Entomologists have discovered four insects that could help control the emerald ash borer, a fly, and three parasitoid wasps, Kneeland said.
After the disaster with the Asian lady beetle, entomologists are very careful about releasing one non-native insect species to control another species, he said.
The Asian lady beetle feeds on aphids found in gardens and on agricultural crops and is an important predator of the soybean aphid.
It took entomologists seven years to establish the Asian lady beetle, but then the insect “got away” and invaded the environment, Kneeland said.
Many readers of the Colfax Messenger have probably had some experiences with Asian lady beetles, to a greater or lesser extent.
Where this reporter lives, the Asian lady beetles can be so thick on a warm October afternoon after the soybeans have been harvested that it is prudent to not be outside in the yard where the beetles collect by the dozens in hair and on clothing.
Entomologists learned a valuable lesson with the Asian lady beetle and now have an abundance of caution when considering the release of an insect species, Kneeland said.
Wild parsnip
Wild parsnip is another invasive plant species that has spread like wildfire, Kneeland said, and has invaded ditches and rights-of-way in a systematic fashion.
The problem with wild parsnip is that where it comes in contact with the skin, the skin becomes photosensitive, so that exposure to the sun results red, blistering, itchy rashes that rival, or in some cases surpass, poison ivy in their severity
Towns, counties and the state have done a good job of getting on board with mowing wild parsnip at the appropriate time to control the spread, Kneeland said.
Another concept for controlling invasives is eating them, he said.
Kneeland has garlic mustard on his property and said he has experimented with a recipe for a garlic mustard pesto.
When participants in the LCIP annual meeting were asked if anyone had tried eating wild parsnip, no one had.
Kneeland said from everything he has read, wild parsnip is edible, although he has not tried it himself.
LCIP
For more information about the Lower Chippewa Invasives Partnership, visit www.lcinvasives.org.
If you have a plant on your property that you think might be invasive, and want to identify what it is, Chris Gaetzke, executive director of LCIP, says you are more than welcome to e-mail a picture of it to him at [email protected].
