Ag. Dept. has advice to control invasive species in Md.

Stink bug

Timothy Sandoval in the Carroll County Times provides some good advice from the Maryland Department of Agriculture for keeping invasive species of plants, insects, and diseases away from the flora and fauna native to Maryland.

For residents and farmers:

1. Learn where infested areas are and avoid passing through them.
2. Remove all seeds and other plant parts from your equipment, boots, gear, truck bed, tires, animals, and harvesting equipment before leaving an infested area or after working a site to make sure you are not spreading seeds, insects, or spores to a new location.
3. Remove or eliminate from your property any junk piles or other places bees can nest.
4. Do not move firewood. Buy or use firewood that is close to your campsite.
5. Hunters, don’t use invasive plants for food plots.
6. Farmers and ranchers: be sure to control invasive plants along fencerows, ditches, and other areas adjacent to fields.
7. Always use weed-free hay and feed for your animals.
8. Report any invasive pest sightings to the local land manager, MDA or local APHIS office (aphis.usda.gov).

For gardeners:

1. Buy local. There is a wide variety of beautiful, easy-to-care-for plants available at local nurseries and garden centers.
2. Avoid using invasive plant species at all costs and remove invasive plants from your garden.
3. Until you are able to rid your garden of invasive plants, remove and destroy seed heads before they can spread.
4. Don’t share invasives with other gardeners.
5. Talk to other gardeners about invasives and how you plan to help in the fight against them.
6. If you are worried that your garden will lose its luster after removing invasives, talk to your local nursery about suitable replacements.
7. Clean your boots, gear, truck bed, tires, and harvesting equipment after working a site to make sure you are not spreading seeds, insects, or spores to a new location.
8. Report any sightings to your county extension agent or local APHIS office (click on the “Report a pest or disease” link at www.aphis.usda.gov). The sooner invasive species are detected, the easier and cheaper it is to control them.

One of the most annoying nonnative species that flourishes in Maryland is the brown marmorated stink bug, which is native to Asia. The bugs can destroy patches of crops and cause a general nuisance wherever they go. Their scientific designation, as with all insects (phylum Arthropoda, subphylum Hexapoda, class Insecta) is complicated: order Hemiptera (true bugs, cicadas, hoppers, aphids, and allies), suborder Heteroptera (true bugs), infraorder Pentatomomorpha, superfamily Pentatomoidea, family Pentatomidae (stink bugs), tribe Cappaeini, genus Halyomorpha, species halys.

“Species, when they are taken out of where they are supposed to be, usually create issues that take a very long time to overcome,” the Times quoted one farmer as saying, noting that having to spray his field with pesticide every year cuts into his bottom line.

County officials are also hoping to clean up Piney Run Lake, which has been invaded by the exotic invasive plant, hydrilla verticillata. The nonnative plant has affected boating and fishing at the lake, according to Jeff Degitz, administrator of the Carroll County Department of Recreation and Parks. “Once you have it, you pretty much have it,” he said at a recent county meeting while asking for money for a specialist to come in and get rid of the plant.