State authorities ask Michigan residents to watch for invasive species

As Northern Michigan enjoys the end of the summer season, state environmental organizations are asking people across the state to help prevent the spread of invasive species.

Joanne Foreman, communications coordinator for the state invasive species program, says the program mainly focuses its efforts on preventing the spread of species from neighboring regions or those that have recently arrived and may still be containable.

Foreman billed August as ‘tree check month,’ encouraging everyone to check their local trees for the Asian longhorned beetle and other potentially destructive insects.

“Where it has landed in the US, in little isolated pockets in some of the eastern states and even as close as Ohio, it devastates hardwood trees,” Foreman said.

The beetle has yet to be detected in Michigan, but it can wreak havoc on local ecosystems.

“What it does is it lays its eggs, and the larvae go through and bore through the trees and literally destroy their insides,” she said. “So this is a really dangerous pest, and when it does arrive in locations, basically all the hardwood trees need to be removed.”

It can be identified through dime-sized holes left in tree bark.

Foreman encouraged those checking trees to also watch for the balsam woolly adelgid, which leaves small white tufts of eggs on balsam trees, and hemlock woolly adelgid, which leaves similar tufts on the undersides of branches.

Foreman also warned about the spotted lanternfly, which can attract large masses of wasps and other insects.

“Right now, we have an isolated infestation in Oakland County, which we’ve been doing pretty good managing. However, this year, we found more populations in Monroe County, sort of coming over the border from Ohio,” she said.

Foreman encouraged anyone exploring the outdoors to check their gear for pests, scrub their boots and clean their boat if transferring it between bodies of water.

Aggressive water plants like hydrilla can spread if special precautions are ignored.

If you think you’ve found an invasive species, you can visit the state’s website at michigan.gov/invasives .

“Folks are the eyes and ears for us in this process, and we wouldn’t know very much about the infestations in Michigan without people stepping up and reporting,” Foreman said.