Maryland's Invader of the Month for April is a species they haven't even seen yet: the viburnum leaf beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni). First seen in Canada in the late 1940s, the beetle was spotted in New York in the mid-1990s and seems to have been making its way southward since then. Concerned that the beetle has been found in neighboring Pennsylvania, the Maryland Invasive Species Council wants its residents to be on the lookout, and provides contact information to report sightings in that state. Check out the NAPIS website for a history of the North American spread of the beetle, including a map of the U.S. distribution from 2005.
1 comment:
The beetle is already in Ontario. Lori Bushway at Cornell has an excellent website that gives advice to owners of viburnum bushes on how to deal with the invader.
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/index.html
J. Routh
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