The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is surveying for three invasive plant pests in New York this year: the box tree moth (Cydalima perspectalis), spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) (pictured above), and the European cherry fruit fly (Rhagoletis cerasi L.)

European Cherry Fruit Fly

Box Tree Moth
APHIS asks residents and business owners to help limit the spread of invasive plant pests by following local quarantines. Please also allow agricultural survey teams onto your property for survey work and to hang insect traps. The insect traps help agricultural officials track invasive insect movement and are crucial to mounting an effective response against these damaging pests. We need your help to be successful. USDA and State surveyors working in the field will have official credentials identifying them as USDA or State employees. The surveys are underway and will continue through the fall.
For more information about the box tree moth, spotted lanternfly, and European cherry fruit fly, visit the APHIS website. To receive email updates, subscribe to the Plant Protection Act 7721 topic in the APHIS Stakeholder Registry.
Invasives update: The good, the bad and the promising
Despite an omnipresent threat of invasive species entering or spreading in the Adirondack Park, around three-quarters of Adirondack waterways remain free of aquatic invasive species.
Conservationists battling the spread of invasive species in the park like to cite that fact as a sign of the park’s still-pristine nature and as a clarion call to continue their work.
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, a small team that coordinates efforts to fight invasives in the park, this week released its annual report. The report highlights the growing threat of forest pests like hemlock wooly adelgid on Lake George and the looming threat of round goby and hydrilla, which have yet to break through the park’s borders.
APIPP reported five new waterbodies found to contain invasive species within its area: Lake Roxanne and Tracy Brook in Clinton County, the St. Regis River and a connected wetland in Franklin County, and Park Lake in Hamilton County.
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