Record Rains, Giant Hogweed Warnings, Beetle Quarantines!

There’s never a dull moment. Record historical rainfalls, giant stinging plants and beetle quarantines near you, just to name a few items in the news these days. The 4.16 inches of rain that fell on New York City’s Central Park during last weekend’s storm, Andrea was more than double the previous record for the date, set in 1918.

LIISMA, The Long Island Invasive Species Management Area, has issued a Giant Hogweed alert along with a hotline number for Giant Hogweed sightings. And the USDA has confirmed beetle quarantine locations for Long Island. The LIISMA website states that Giant Hogweed will be flowering from mid-June through mid-July and causes severe burns if touched.

The DEC offers a map and a stern warning, “Do Not Touch This Plant!” along with a known Giant Hogweed Location Map. Obviously, the East End has its fair share of Giant Hogweed, so be careful out there!

The DEC Giant Hogweed Identification Page offers some detailed photos of the plant, which can grow up to 14 feet tall.

When you look at the identification photos, you can understand why Maine horticulturist Ann Gibbs has referred to Giant Hogweed as “Queen Anne’s lace on steroids.”

Also of note, keep your eyes peeled for invasive beetle populations on Long Island. Photos of the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) and the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) can help you identify them. The sparkly-green Emerald Ash Borer is actually kind of beautiful when viewed up close.

If you thought that imports from China were limited to filling up Walmart retail shelves, you are mistaken. ALB were first discovered in the US infesting trees in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York in August 1996 and the most popular theory holds that wooden crates and pallets used for imports from China had live larvae that went rogue in Brooklyn. That’s probably why present laws are pretty strict requiring all shipping pallets to be either kiln treated or chemically treated.

Asian Longhorned Beetles are known to attack maple, horsechestnut, elm, willow, birch, poplar, ash, willow and many more trees and have a recurring problematic history on Long Island.

In 2011, Islip was under a wood and plant quarantine and successfully eradicated the problem. I phoned the USDA Long island office and they've confirmed that a quarantine is in effect in Central Long Island from Massapequa east to Babylon and north to Farmingdale. This link displays a map with street boundaries. The idea of the quarantine is to stop the removal of any wood or live trees from within these boundaries. Any waste wood must be either chipped or disposed of within the area.

So far, it's believed that the Emerald Ash Borer has avoided excursions to the East End and the Hamptons. However, it has caused quarantines in 16 western New York counties. If you do happen to see the little green beetles, do call the National EAB Hotline 866-322-4512 or the USDA. By the way, a while back I mentioned the invasion of the cicadas. The map at this link details where they appeared this season.

Note: DEC photo use in accordance with policy to, “Encourage other entities to distribute and use DEC work for educational purposes.”

For original article and key photos, see original post here.