Pennsylvania Invasive Species: Invasion Pathways

- Today we'll talk about how evasive species arrive, and what their impact mean to us.

Just a second.

So before I start, I just wanted to introduce myself.

Some of you are returning customers, you already know me, but if you don't know me, I'm an extension entomologist here at Penn State Extension.

I have an undergrad and a master's degree in forestry from Brazil where I'm actually from.

That's why I'm gonna see some accent here today.

I have a PhD in Entomology from the University of Florida where I study invasive species, and classical biological control.

I work with Brazilian peppertree at my time in Florida.

Before I came to Penn State, I was a postdoc at Rutgers University where I worked with management of spotted wing drosophila., which is a fruit fly in blueberries.

And then here at at Penn State Extension, I am doing education on invasive species and biological control.

These are the four main topics for my talk today.

Invasive species, what they are, how they arrive, and how they establish.

I'll talk about the impact of these invasive species, what we can do to help in conservation efforts and to stop this spread.

And lastly, I'll give some examples from Pennsylvania and talk a little bit about management options as well.

When we talk about invasive species, it's always good to start by talking about natives versus non-Native.

Non-native species are the ones that moved outside the geographic area.

And then I just always like to remember people, it doesn't mean outside the USA, it can be from the west coast, moved to the east coast.

It can be considered non-native because it's technically not from here.

And this movement of species is often done by human activity, we depend and use several of these non-native species in our daily lives.

Several of our food sources and ornamental plants that we really like are not native.

So they're not native, but it does not make them invasive.

I always like to show bird-of-paradise as one of my favorite plants.

It's not native to Northeast USA, and you can find easily in stores to purchase, but it's not considered invasive here.

To be considered invasive, a non-native plant must cause harm to the ecosystem, to the economy, or to human health.

There's several stages that a non-native species have to go through to be considered invasive.

The forming ones are they have to cause economic ecosystem and human health harm as we just talked.

That is what make them, first of all, to be considered invasive.

They need to establish and self-sustained populations.

So you don't consider, for example, corn invasive because you have to plant it again and again every year.

And corn is a non-native species.

And they need to grow abundantly and expand the geographic area.

So they need to spread naturally.

And it's always important to remember the only a fraction of this introduced species that arrive in a ecosystem eventually become invasive.

So how it started, the movement of organisms by humans is nothing new.

It is happening since the colonization times where we move plants, insects and diseases alike intentionally are not.

Think about when and how some of the crops that we depend on arrived here.

A lot of them are non-native.

But then remember, we don't consider them invasive because they depend on humans for their continuous propagation.

You do have to plant them over and over, otherwise they're not gonna propagate themselves.

Early on, especially on Europe, they had acclimatization societies.

So these were voluntary associations founded in 19 and the 20th century that encouraged introduction of non-native species in various places around the world.

Their idea was that they wanted the species from different places that they thought was pretty, things that maybe would be an important crop or something like that if they would acclimatize in this new environment.

They didn't know or think about implication of this.

They just wanted to introduce pretty things around the world.

And just a side note, as I mentioned before, I did my PhD in Florida where I study Brazilian peppertree.

My muscle memory cannot let me talk about invasive species and not put anything about Brazilian peppertree.

So this is an invasive species from South America that was introduced into Florida as onarmental tree, especially because of this, as you can see in the photo, this pretty and abundant red berries and green leaves.

They're perfect during Christmas time.

Sometimes the Brazilian peppertree is called Florida holly, which does nothing to do with Florida.

So this plant was introduced by a proud Dr. Geo Stone in the 1900s.

He said, "It was an honor to introduce this brilliant berry-bearing shrub collected somewhere in Brazil.

It ought to be in every garden in Florida." And the funny thing is that he had no idea that his prediction would work because nowadays Brazilian peppertree is considered one of the worst upland invasive species in Florida, and is basically everywhere there.

A good example of intentionally introduction of an invasive species is the introduction of Canada goldenrod into botanical gardens in Europe and then later distributed into gardens.

It became a popular ornamental plant that now is considered invasive.

Canada goldenrod can modify soil characteristics and now outcompete native species.

So the introduction was intentional, but people did not know they would cause a problem that is causing.

One good example of unintentional, people didn't want that to happen.

Introduction is Dutch Elm disease.

It was accidentally introduced into the US through infected good and bark beetles.

This disease is so bad that you don't see or use on the landscape anymore, which is fairly sad because it's a very important trade.

So how's it going?

We have a benefit from globalization, but increased trade, travel and transportation create more opportunities for species to move around, so they can come from overseas easily here where they could not just move themselves alone.

Shipping containers, wood packing, plants, and even luggage can unintentionally carry invasive species across the borders.

Excuse me.

There are restrictive regulations and inspections to limit the spread of this invasive species like on cargo, plants and animals entering countries are often checked for pests and diseases, but it's impossible to inspect throughly shipment and some species lived through.

Even with the best protocols in place, invasive species still find ways to enter new environments.

One thing that we don't think much or even talk much about here in the Northeast USA, but it's a very big campaign in Florida, is that when people travel often unknowingly they bring items from vacations or from your home country.

For example, me bringing stuff from Brazil that can contribute to the introduction of invasive species.

So these can include souvenir plants, wood products that contain eggs or immature insects inside.

So you think everything is good, but there's something inside that wood product.

Food items, this is especially bad and it's easy to introduce new fruit flies in different states.

Shoes that can pick up seeds from plants that can become invasive.

Even rocks or shells can help the introduction of invasive species.

There's several things that we don't think about.

Honestly, often when I go back home, when I come back, I don't think about inspecting my shoes to see if there is anything that got stuck.

Hopefully nothing ever happened.

So I think also that everyone had heard a sad story of someone bringing something from a travel.

They got confiscated by customs.

I promise you that they're not being mean to you, they're just trying to the best of their knowledge protect our culture, our ecosystem, and human health.

So as we know the introduction of invasive species is still occurring.

We, every year we get something new, sometimes one, two or three different species.

One example of intentional introduction is Chinese silver grass.

It was a very important species for landscaping for decades, but in the last 20 years it has been considered invasive because of its ability to spread and establish without cultivation, invading several ecosystems.

And unintentional example, famous in Pennsylvania is a spotted lanternfly.

It's impossible to be talking about invasive species in Pennsylvania, and not talk something about spotted lanternfly.

So these species was unintentionally introduced on a shipment of stones that had egg masses on it.

That's at least what we believe that happened.

I'll talk a little bit more about spotted lanternfly in the future.

So not all non-native species can establish.

It's expected then for the new species that arrive, about 10% will survive.

And from that 10%, only 10% will become invasive.

That makes about 1% that become successful.

So it could be a lot worse if they had more success when they're arriving in this new environment.

So they will establish where the physiological requirements are met.

For example, feeds from a tropical species are not likely to survive on desert scents, for example.

But of course that's not always a limiting factor.

Some of them can adapt more easily to new conditions even when not all of their requirement, physiological requirements are met.

Some of these invasive species are often more abundant and widespread of the non-native range because they scape for the natural enemies.

A lot of times when we introduce these species, intentionally or not, we bring them clean they can just grow unbothered by any predator, or anything that's gonna control them naturally.

So disturbance facilitates invasion.

Most of the invasive species are found in human disturbed areas.

This can also be true for events like we've seen last weekend, right?

Hurricanes, flooding and mudslides create open opportunities or these vacant areas for non-native species to establish.

Of course our native species can also establish on these new open areas, but invasive species are often more resilient, more plastic to this new and changing environment conditions.

And a lot of times some of these invasive species gonna sprout faster than native and they're gonna take over one area for example.

So even though there's a high level of quality of the work done to eliminate any contaminants, many invasive species are transported around the globe as contaminants and seeds and plants.

And a very good bad example is the Thrips parvispinus.

This Thrips is a new species.

They arrived in Florida in 2020 on ornamental plants and has now moved all over the USA on infested plant materials.

So even though we do a very good job taking care of all these potential problems, something always goes through and unfortunately can't establish Invasive species can dramatically alter the landscape they invade, causing far reach effects that require costly management efforts and long-term ecological consequences.

What makes them consider invasive are the major impacts they cause.

So they cause ecosystem disruption, invasive species often outcompete native species for resources like food, space, and light.

And that can lead to decline of native species.

Invasive species often cause economic damage.

They can cause significant economic harm by affecting industries like agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and also cause harm to human health.

Some of the invasive species are vectors so they can spread diseases, some of them can trigger allergies.

So all the good stuff together, right?

So there is several ways that they can affect our ecosystems, some of them are competition for resources.

So invasive species often are competing native species for food, water, sunlight, and space.

One example is the kudzu, a fast growing vine, can overtake trees and shrubs blocking sunlight and is murdering native plants, reducing biodiversity and forest ecosystems.

And because of that, native species may struggle to survive and then they lose access to vital resources like, light for example.

They can modify habitats, invasive plants and animals can alter physical habitats, changing the conditions under which the native species thrive, the condition that they need to survive.

One example are the invasive grass like cheatgrass.

This grass increase the risks of wildfires in the Western USA.

Destroying ecosystems that are not adapted to fricking fires.

Invasive species can also modify soil composition, species like Canada thistle can change the nitrogen levels of the soil making less favorable for native species.

So they're gonna deplete the nutrients in the soil and then the native species not gonna have enough nutrients to survive.

And invasive species often then thrive even more on those areas.

They can facilitate the introduction of new diseases.

Invasive species can introduce new diseases or pathogens to native ecosystems.

And I'm here just talking about ecosystem and I'm not talking about human health, but works basically the same way.

One example that I talk about before is the Dutch elm disease.

This disease was spread by invasive bark beetles and devastated elm tree populations in North America.

Our native species compared to where these diseases are coming from, for example did not evolve to resist these pathogens, and often they suffer severe populations decline.

Invasive species also can disrupt food webs.

They can disrupt the natural food chains, but become dominant competitors or predators living native species without their usual food resources.

For example, the Asian ladybug have displaced several native ladybugs.

This causes cascading effects on ecosystem leading to a reduction of and the effectiveness of this natural bio controls are native to a region, and they can cause loss of biodiversity.

By dominating ecosystem, invasive species reduce the variety of the species in the area leading to a declining biodiversity.

And often these invasive species grow in a way that become monoculture, so you're reducing even more biodiversity in the area.

One example is hydrilla, which is a invasive aquatic species.

Hydrilla forms a very dense mat that blocks the sunlight from reaching other aquatic species, leading to the collapse of native plant communities.

A study from 2021 estimates that evasive species cost the US around $26 billion a year.

And the agriculture sector is one of the most impacted with billion dollars in crop losses, management costs and increase and market restrictions.

So things get sent back because some of these invasive species are on the products.

So invasive plants, insects and disease can directly affect crop yields by competing with crops for resources or by feeding on them.

For example, palmer amaranth, which is a great example on how a plant that is native to one region in the country can be invasive in another.

So palmer amaranth is native to Southwest USA Mexico and is a very big problem here on the East, middle East and East part of the country.

This plant is a major problem for crop production, especially corn, cotton and soybean.

Its aggressive growth allows it to dominate fields, depriving crops of essential nutrients, water and sunlight.

Palmer amaranth research shows that it can reduce use as much as 91% in corn and 79% in soybean fields if not controlled.

Invasive species also cause increased costs for pest control.

They need to monitor, control and mitigate the spread of these invasive species, requires significant resources both individual farmers and the government.

Of course farmers had already plans to control pests, that's normal.

But when you introduce a new species, when a species become too abundant, you spend a lot more money, you have to spend a lot more to control it.

And that's everything causes problem to the economy.

So invasive species can also affect pasture land and grazing for livestock.

Some species are even toxic to this livestock leading to direct economic losses, to livestock deaths and illness.

And invasive species don't disrupt only ecosystems in our economy, we also have to think about human health.

So they can facilitate these spread of diseases because they can be the carriers like the vectors of diseases that affect us, and not only us, our domesticated animals as well.

One example is the Asian longhorned tick, is tick that is invasive and they can carry several diseases like bovine theileriosis that can reduce their reproduction and even cure caps.

And another disease that this tick can carry is rocky mountain spotted fever that can be fatal to humans if not treated early.

Invasive plants can release pollen or other allergens that affect air quality and contribute to respiratory problems like asthma and allergies.

Kudzu for example, an invasive vine as I talked before, contributes to poor air quality by releasing high levels of isoprene which can worsen air pollution.

Some invasive plants in animals can cause skin irritation and other physical harm to direct contact or the exposure to the saps if is entering contact to the skin.

And one example of that is giant hogweed, which is an invasive plant.

It can cause severe skin burns and blistering and when it saps comes in contact with skin and exposed to sunlight.

Invasive species can contribute to the growth of harmful algal blooms which produce toxins that are dangerous to human health.

So I talk about all these things, so what you can do?

There's several things that homeowners educators, students, state and federal workers, people that work with landscape, and everyone else can do to help with conservation efforts related to invasive species.

So these are basic steps you can do to prevent the movement of invasive species and help also with early detection problems.

Clean, inspect outdoor equipment.

People should clean their boats, hiking gear, and other equipments that could carry invasive species, especially when moving between different ecosystem.

This is particularly important for aquatic species which can easily spread through contaminated boats and fishing gear.

It's always important when you go fishing for example, or when you are out in a boat to remove everything from that specific lake for example, or river, whatever you you are doing in the area where you docked.

There is a lot of places, especially here in Pennsylvania right now when you have disposal bin, when you can put like beads or plants or seeds, whatever you have on your boat, on your fishing equipment.

Monitor reporting sightings is a very important step as well.

Early detection is the best.

If something arrived, if something is your new invasive species, early detection is the best way and the less expensive way to control this invasive species.

So important thing is you need to educate yourself.

So you can find information about new, existing and upcoming invasive species in our extension website.

The Pennsylvania Department of Ag also has a lot of information about upcoming and already here invasive species.

You can also find information on the the DCNR website.

So there is a lot of places you can find for information.

Remember you can always talk to your extension educator in your area or Master Gardener Volunteers.

There's always a place you can find good information.

And as I was preparing this talk, I just like Googled, right, like where to find information about upcoming invasive species.

I found that the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy website has an invader watch list page.

So you can find information on how to id, how it looks like, what to look for, where to look for specific to that region.

But you can get a idea of what it should look like, especially for Pennsylvania and our surrounding states.

Again, you need to know what to look for, how the species look like and where they might be.

So you can be very good in one removing a species or helping with reporting.

People can report sightings of invasive species in Pennsylvania to the Department of Agriculture by emailing bedbug@pa.gov.

And you can also call 866-253-7189.

So again, this is from the Pennsylvania Department of Ag.

If you see new invasive species, especially.

Another step that you can take is try using native species when you are landscaping or gardening.

I know that some of the non-native species are beautiful and I am not gonna be the person to tell people to stop using boxwood in landscaping, I might lose my job if I say that, right.

So boxwood plants are not a problem for example, but some of the plants that are used when gardening can become invasive.

If you hear about a plant for the landscape that grows very well, very fast, is persistent, has low problems with herbivores, it's just the best thing you could ever have in your whole life, you should really look into it because that's probably an invasive species.

So do your research, see what you have in your garden, especially if you're making or changing your landscape, think about what species you're putting in.

And you should be careful when disposing plant material.

Some invasive species, a little section of the root can be enough to cause a new invasion, so you have to be very careful.

So yard waste and clippings from invasive species to be disposed carefully.

Any improper disposal can lead to their spread.

Again, you have to be careful, you have to be aware.

And when possible, visible anything can look good enough, choose native plants.

If you, and we are very used to some of these plants, they're used over and over and over, they're non-natives.

If you don't know what to plant, this website, choosenativeplants.com is gonna show you what plants to select for whatever your conditions are.

You also show you where to buy those plants, which is very good, sometimes you don't know, right?

Who has native plants?

I know the Big-Box Stores have the big ones, right?

But some of them that you're interested, they might not have it.

So that's a good place for you to find information.

And this website show information from Pennsylvania, but I'm pretty sure you can find more places to find this.

I think the Xerces Society has a website that can do the same thing.

So another action step, and I added this here because we have a very broad group of people participating on this webinar.

So it's to organize or attend outreach and extension events.

Raise awareness, right?

You need to educate the public about invasive species and their impact.

This is crucial for us to be able to stop the spread of some of these species.

Government and profits and community groups can hold workshops, webinars, and few tours to inform people about invasive species management.

Just a second, Sorry.

And you're doing your part today.

Of course you're here in this webinar and I really want everyone to participate in my webinar 'cause I want to be them to be successful.

So please register as many as you can.

We have several topics being covered.

So you're doing your part right?

You're interested, you're showing that you are here for it.

Comply regulations, never transport firewood from one location to another.

I know this can be hard sometimes, but don't do it.

There is a lot of information out there.

Invasive insects for example, like the emerald ash borer, can live in firewood and be transported to new areas where they are very harmful to forests.

And then as we talked before, when you travel, be cautious about bringing back plants, seeds or animals that could potentially introduce new invasive species to your home region.

Quarantine zones are this areas where movement of specific plants, animals, or goods is restricted to prevent the spread of pest and diseases.

For example, we actually, here again, I'm talking about spotted lanternfly again.

The areas affected by spotted lanterfly, we know by the county.

So in Pennsylvania some of these areas, especially those close to where we don't have spotted lanternfly yet that is quarantined, just to prevent the spreading to the other counties in Pennsylvania to the other states, even though the species is doing very good going everywhere.

And then to finish my talk, I'll give some examples of invasive species here in PA.

I cannot talk very in depth about each one of these species because we don't have time for that.

But I'll talk about when and how they arrived, why they're a problem, why we think they're a problem, and give you some management options.

So again, some of us is tired of spotted lanternfly, but I cannot talk about evasive species in PA without talking about it.

So as most of us know, spotted lanternfly is native to Asia.

It was first detected in Pennsylvania in Berks County, which is very close to here where I am right now in Lebanon County in 2014.

So it's been 10 years now.

It arrived by unintentional again.

No one wanted that to happen, but unfortunately happened.

Introduction from stones containing eggs.

And they believe that that introduction was in 2012.

So that species was there just reproducing, establishing, and then there was that boom when everyone saw spotted lanternfly everywhere, was a huge problem.

And it's not good.

The problem with spotted lanternfly is that it has a very broad host range, means they can consume sap for a lot of different species.

And it includes several important plenty species like grapevines, which is important industry in Pennsylvania and to our neighboring states.

So the best way to manage spotted lanternfly is to do mechanical control by scraping eggs masses and destroying them.

And this is the perfect time of the year to do that.

So I hope you all looking for it and eliminating those eggs.

And sometimes it's very hard to see them because they merge very well with the trunk of the trees where they are laid, but if you train your eyes for it, you probably can find it easily.

You can use chemical control, you can do systemic insecticides like (indistinct).

Biological control, there is no classical biological control program going on yet.

There's a lot of insects being studied by the OSDA in quarantine.

But we do know that insects like praying mantises and also spiders can eat spotted lanternfly.

Birds also can eat, so they can do a good job.

Another big problem in Pennsylvania that has been here for a very long time, is hemlock woolly adelgid.

It is suspect that this insect arrived in the US around 1911, so a very long time ago.

And was found in Pennsylvania in 1967.

It probably entered US hitchhiking on Japanese hemlock trees.

Again, another unintentional introduction, right?

It attacks mainly hemlock trees.

And if you're not from Pennsylvania or if you're new here, if you don't know, eastern hemlock is the state tree of Pennsylvania.

This tree used to be used a lot and now people are not planting anymore because they'll likely be affected by hemlock woolly adelgid.

High infestations can cause branch dieback and with in severe cases it cause tree mortality.

There is a lot of people starting to want, they're not planting eastern hemlock anymore, which is kind of very sad for Pennsylvania being that important species, and they're trying to replace with other species.

But then we always have to think about this.

We're replacing this with something even though native, eventually something's gonna come for that too.

We're gonna lose our species, right?

We have to be very, very aware and careful.

There are management options for the hemlock woolly adeljid, biocontrol using a natural enemy to beetle, chemical control using systemic insecticides like imidacloprid again has to be systemic 'cause of the way they expect to feed on the plant, on the trees.

Cultural control can be done by breeding resistant trees.

There is a lot of studies done that they can hybridize Japanese hemlock and then the hybrids of it will be more resistant to the hemlock woolly adelgid.

Not perfect, but it's better than losing our trees, right?

Like where are the ashes for example?

We want to keep our hemlock out there.

A new invasive species that's becoming a big problem in the US is the box-tree moth.

This moth's native to Eastern Asia.

It arrived in North America in Canada first in 2018.

And then in 2021 it was detected in the US.

And last month it was detected in Erie County in Pennsylvania.

Box-tree moth was unintentionally introduced from infested boxwoods plants.

Excuse me, the good thing is that box-tree moth is whole specific to boxwood.

So that's basically the only diet.

They're only gonna eat that.

But the bad thing is boxwood is one of the most important ornamental plants in the United States.

Not even just Pennsylvania, is in the whole country.

Is manifestations of box-tree moth can be controlled by regular inspecting plants and hand picking larvae, cutting branches with eggs.

So if it's in your house, you have some plants, you can just remove them manually.

The plant might not look as nice as you wish, but at least you're gonna remove them before they become a problem.

Classical biocontrol agent is being studied by the USDA as well, but it'll take a while for that insect to be out.

I think they just started doing experiments and take a very, very long time for a classical biological control to work to be allowed to be released because of other the regulations.

And then we know that Bacillus thuringiensis can be effective just like it is with other caterpillars.

Behavioral controls and traps bated with sex pheromones can be a good way.

It's not gonna control it because it's not necessarily gonna kill it, but you can see if the box-tree moth is in your area.

So what happened is this trap, I should have put a photo here.

This trap you're gonna put the sex pheromone that imitates the female sex pheromone and you're gonna attract males to this traps.

And also there's several chemicals that can be used.

If you want to learn more about box-three month ID management options, please join us on October 23rd on our free Box-Tree Moth webinar.

We're gonna get good people talking about what's going on, latest research on it, so you can get the fresh information out of the experts.

The zebra mussel is also a big problem in freshwater in Pennsylvania.

They were first discovered in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, and have since spread to various waterways.

It was reported in Pennsylvania around '94, so it didn't take long for them to arrive in Pennsylvania.

It was likely introduced in the US through ballast water discharged from chips.

So how did arriving in Pennsylvania?

Well, human activities like boating, fishing, unintentionally, but it was introduced nonetheless.

The problem with zebra mussels is that they can clog ecosystem and damage facilities.

And they also outcompete native species for food and habitat.

So they can take over very fairly easy I would say.

The best options to control zebra mussels are using barriers or filters in water systems using molluscicides.

So chemicals that kill molluscs when possible And basically increasing public awareness, it's a very useful and successful way to control it.

Just by cleaning, draining and drying boats and fishing equipment, we can stop the spread of the zebra mussels.

Japanese knotweed is also a big problem in several states.

This plant was native to east to Asia and it was intentionally introduced all over (indistinct), in late 1800s as an ornamental plant, especially because to be used on erosion control.

This plant is extremely aggressive and can adapt to a wide of the environments.

The funny thing, when I found this photo, I'm like, okay, this one's coming out of the the ground looks like fingers, very scary.

It became a significant invasive species in Pennsylvania in the mid 20th century, particularly along rivers, roadside and disturbed lands.

Remember invasive species love disturbed lands where displaces native vegetation and alter ecosystem.

So they establish on this easy to get to like disturbed lands, and then from that they go and take over when they can if they're close to native species.

Knotweed plants are very, very hard to control.

Just one segment of root can be enough to start a invasion.

Again, it's hard, but it can be done by continuously cutting and removing the root systems, application of systemic insecticides containing glyphosate or triclopyr to the part of the plant that's growing, so the new growth parts.

Research have found of classical biocontrol agents called knotweed psyllid, but it unfortunately doesn't seem to be doing much control of it, and researchers are still looking for a good option.

Again, this is a very aggressive invasive species, that's a big problem in several states, and I hope they we'll find a better way to control it.

And lastly, I'll talk about beech leaf disease.

The beech leaf disease is another invasive species that's very important, especially because beech leaf disease is a trait to forest in the Eastern US and Canada.

The loss of beech trees due to beech leaf disease could shorten forest secession timelines and diminish forest quality.

Again, just like the hemlock traits, people are not using beech anymore because they're afraid of this disease.

So we're again, taking another species that we could be using in our landscaping, you have to think very hard if you want to have this, that plant or not.

So this disease was first discovered in Ohio in 2012 and in Pennsylvania it arrived in 2017.

It affects American beech trees and is believed to be associated with an nematode, and this nematodes looks to be transported from plant to plant by insects.

But the exact cause is still under investigation.

We don't know a lot about it.

So management options are limited because researchers don't know much about this disease.

But it's believed that nematocides, so if you're killing the nematodes they are moving this disease around, you can probably control it.

Well, I hope you're still here with me and you are not bored to that.

The important points for my talk today that I want you to remember is, invasive species have far reaching impacts on ecosystems to the economy and to the human health.

Early detection and prevention are crucial to minimize effects of these invasive species.

Again, educate yourself, be aware, know what to look for and help when you can.

Everyone can play a role in preventing the spread of invasive species by being aware of quarantine zone and respecting them, choosing native plants when possible, or being smart about using native species.

And also by taking simply actions like cleaning outdoor gear.

And it's also remember that conservation efforts to start locally.

You can support policies, volunteer for removal efforts, and report sightings of invasive species as a key steps for protecting our local environment.

Thank you all for being here today.

If you're interested in basic species, check the Penn State website for extension website for more events.