Digital Commons Network^™

Japanese Beetles’ Feeding On Milkweed Flowers May Compromise Efforts To Restore Monarch Butterfly Habitat, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter

Entomology Faculty Publications

The eastern North American migratory population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) is in serious decline. Habitat restoration, including adding millions of host plants to compensate for loss of milkweed in US cropland, is a key part of the international conservation strategy to return this iconic butterfly to sustainable status. We report here that Popillia japonica, a polyphagous, invasive beetle, aggregates and feeds on flowers of Asclepias syriaca, the monarch’s most important larval food plant, reducing fruiting and seed set by >90% and extensively damaging milkweed umbels in the field. The beetle’s ongoing incursion into the monarch’s …

Restoration Of Native-Dominated Plant Communities On A Centaurea Stoebe L.-Infested Site, Neil W. Macdonald, Kaitlyn M. Dykstra, Laurelin M. Martin

Funded Articles

Questions: Restoring native-dominated plant communities often requires controlling invasive species, reintroducing native species, and implementing continued management practices. Can single herbicide applications to control Centaurea stoebe L. encourage establishment of seeded native species more effectively than a single mowing? Can annual hand pulling to control C. stoebe favor the persistence of seeded native species? Can mid-spring burning reduce C. stoebe and increase native forbs and grasses? After eight years, will the restored plant communities differ from those in untreated areas?

Location: Bass River Recreation Area, Ottawa County, MI, USA.

Methods: We studied the effects of site preparation (mowing, clopyralid, glyphosate), …

Reducing The Risk Of Invasive Pathogens To Wildlife Health In The United States, Edward E. Clark Jr., Marshall Meyers, David Eldon Starling, Brent Stewart, Nathan Stone, Gary Tabor, Jeffrey S. White

National Invasive Species Council

Call to Action

In keeping with action items 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 of the 2016–2018 National Invasive Species Council (NISC) Management Plan, the Wildlife Health Task Team of the Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC) was charged with: 1) identifying the major areas of vulnerability to native wildlife from the introduction and spread of invasive pathogens, and 2) making recommendations to address these vulnerabilities, including through potential changes in statute, regulation, policy, or practice of the relevant agencies.

Considerations For The 2019–2021 Nisc Management Plan, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

The Issue

Efforts to prevent the importation of invasive species are insufficient to protect the United States. Nor are resources adequate for the eradication or control of invasive species that have already entered the country. There is a clear need for more effective coordination and collaboration among federal agencies and other entities to address gaps and inconsistencies in relevant statutes, regulations, agency authorities, as well as to improve and sustain access to the data needed to inform decisions and direct action

Flowering Dogwood Survives Exotic Attack, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

It has been said that loss of native biodiversity from the effects of invasive exotic species is second only to that caused by outright habitat destruction. In the world of plants, some of the worst offenders are exotic species that actively invade intact natural habitats and, by their aggressive tendencies, crowd out native species. Attack by lianas (woody climbing plants) such as Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) can include effects similar to strangulation, brought on by twining around their host plant’s stems. It is not always the host, however, for which the …