Posted on 01/13/2008 7:18:12 AM PST by Flavius
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A beetle imported from Asia is spreading around the southeast United States, leaving dead and dying redbay trees in its wake.
The redbay ambrosia beetle is believed to have entered the country through Savannah, Ga., in 2002, probably in a wood pallet or packing case. It has spread into the Carolinas and south to Florida, where it was spotted for the first time last summer in Brevard County in central Florida, Florida Today reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
We are going to lose all of our Ash trees to a simliar beetle,now this?
survival of the fittest
Also, the Erythrina gall wasp from China is killing Hawaii’s native coral trees, the wiliwili. There is a huge stand of the trees along the Honoapiilani Highway on Maui that are just about done for, and apparently this plague is active on all the islands. The Honolulu Advertiser had a story about it that neglected to mention the source of the wasp infestation!
I live on the Texas coast and according to my tree and shrub book they grow here, but I have no idea what they are.
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Maybe we should spend untold sums of taxpayer money to get ahead of the beetles and cut down the red bay trees ourselves before the beetles do it. Hey, it's what we are doing with the Ash trees.... The result will be the same.
You’ve no idea...
The only thing that remains the same is CHANGE.
Sadly, we soil our nest more than any other animal.
Let’s not cut down the dead stands of trees and stop the spread of these and any beetles. Environmentalists will cringe at the cutting of a “dead” tree even if it does save the forest.
These cheap imports are going to cost us more than we can imagine.
BTW. I doubt cutting down dead trees will stop the beetles. They are over on the living trees, munching away. I doubt they even eat the dead trees.
Now that world commerce is a fact of everyday life, our native species are in for a foreign invasion from every point on the globe. I don’t think ALL the environmentalists, scientists, & gov’ts will be able to do SQUAT about it. Better to let nature deal with something it has dealt with since the beginning.
We’ve already got kudzu, fire ants, tiger mosquitoes, pythons, iguanas, nutria, & many more. I don’t expect this list to get shorter. Does anybody else?.
I DO dread the coming camel spider invasion from Iraq. Yuck!
Kinda like the TSA at airports.
DDT
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