I was reading the MN DNR Marketplace Bulletin this morning, and they had a story about 2 incidences of live exotic bugs in imported (from China) log furniture. One was a Brown Fir Beetle, I can't remember the other one, it was in hardwood. They were hatching and burrowing out in people's homes after they had purchased the furniture >:( This stuff really gets my goat, why is this stuff allowed to be imported in the first place? The powers that be do nothing but react, rarely anything to prevent, and then when these things get established they lean hard on the "commoners" to prevent movement.
I totally agree with your frustration. Around here you can't hardly transport firewood but yet it's ok to import invasive species from halfway around the world? :) :) something doesn't seem right about that to me.
Much agreement. This past holiday season featured thousands of wreaths infested with elongated hemlock scale. Just great-a completely optional item, but now bringing in a new, exotic and problematic insect into our area. Just great.....big box stores!
tom
The other one wasn't Lantern Fly was it ? I agree it dosen't take a rocket scientist to figure out how bugs hitch hike in wood but it seems that most of our countys people don't have alot of commom sence anymore to figure that out !
I live and cut on the north shore of Lake Erie and you guys have no idea on all the poison stuff coming here from other countries , Last summer we got 2 different kinds of bugs that are very poisonous and can kill up to a 8 year child if bitten by it , we got plants that will make you go blind growing here now . Its getting pretty bad . I have to get needles at least once or more times every summer because of stuff with poison in it
Might be (Anoplophora glabripennis). There has been an outbreak in 2015 about 50 km north of my homeplace in Germany.
The modus operandi to fight it, is to fell any tree and bush in a 100 meter radius around every infested tree...
The first reported case here in Germany dates back to 2004 and they are still not done with it. When this ghost leaves the bottle, there is no way to put him back in.
venice
I keep saying one of these days some nasty pine beetle from Thirdworldastan is going to arrive in the south east and within a decade we will have more open ground than the mid-west, but what do I know? :P Mono-culture at it's finest.
People sometimes wonder why there is a $400 fine for bringing an apple into NZ in your hand luggage... This is the reason.
We still get things slipping through. Asian Gypsy Moth snuck in and got a foothold in parts of Auckland City. They lay eggs in machinery etc and sneak in that way. Major eradication campaign managed to wipe it out, but it was like 3 months of aerial spraying over most of the city. Cost millions, upset lots of city types, but they got it before it spread. Now all ports / airports have pheromone traps set up around them to try and catch any new infestation early so it can be hit before it spreads too far.
Because NZ forestry is mostly Radiata Pine, it's a concern if a pest got in that targeted it. It could happen, but the assessment is that it would be unlikely to wipe out whole forests, but possibly hit them hard enough that it wasn't economical to replant. There are plenty of other trees that could be planted, just the economics aren't quite as good.
Not that NZ is immune to sending pests to the rest of the world.
Pohutukawa trees are an invasive in Sth Africa...
A NZ nematode worm almost wiped out earthworms in England (they had to import NZ worms to replace them)
And the NZ Mud Snail is now a pest in the US.