Invasive species--don't let them in the door. (On First Reading).Slithering slith·er v. slith·ered, slith·er·ing, slith·ers v.intr. 1. To glide or slide like a reptile. See Synonyms at slide. 2. To walk with a sliding or shuffling gait. 3. invaders hit the island of Guam three decades ago and have flourished: now up to 26,000 per square mile. Brown tree snakes brown tree snake see boigairregularis. have gobbled their way through the island's bird species, bitten babies and tangled up in power lines, causing frequent electric blowouts at a cost of $4 million in damages annually. Native to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, eastern Australia and Indonesia, the snakes showed up in Guam in the 1940s, probably hitching rides on military shipments at the end of World War II End of World War II can refer to:
But scientists have finally found a way of getting rid of the pests ... with Tylenol (or at least with acetaminophen acetaminophen (əsēt'əmĭn`əfĭn), an analgesic and fever-reducing medicine similar in effect to aspirin. It is an active ingredient in many over-the-counter medicines, including Tylenol and Midol. , its active ingredient). U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers figured out that dead mice stuffed with acetaminophen make a final snack for the snakes, while few other island animals find the rodents tasty. The tree snake is just one example of an invasive species, which include plants, animals, insects and microbial microbial pertaining to or emanating from a microbe. microbial digestion the breakdown of organic material, especially feedstuffs, by microbial organisms. pests not native to the United States that have an adverse effect on their environment, like reducing the amount of grazing land or choking out native flora and fauna. Invasive weeds and other species cause an annual $136 billion in economic damages, according to a recent study by Cornell researchers. Each state hosts hundreds of nonnative species. Percentages range from 7.9 percent in New Mexico to as high as 47 percent in Hawaii. Many of the nonnative plants are beneficial, such as corn, soybeans and wheat. Others, however, pose a threat to the environment and cost billions to control. European purple loosestrife loosestrife, common name for the Lythraceae, a widely distributed family of plants most abundant as woody shrubs in the American tropics but including also herbaceous species (chiefly of temperate zones) and some trees. grows in 48 states and costs $45 million a year to control and in pasture loss. Leafy spurge can be found in at least 36 states and costs more than $144 million annually for control measures and in loss of grazing land in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. And it's not just plants and snakes. An Asian longhorned beetle Noun 1. Asian longhorned beetle - a beetle from China that has been found in the United States and is a threat to hardwood trees; lives inside the tree; no natural predators in the United States Anoplophora glabripennis invasion led to destruction of more than 5,000 trees in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and Chicago at a cost of more than $6 million. The beetle was brought to America as a "hitchhiker," hiding in pallets and crates of goods shipped from China. To coordinate a nationwide effort against invasive species, former President Bill Clinton created a federal Invasive Species Advisory Council. The council's final management plan is available online at http://www.invasivespecies.gov/council/nmp.shtml. |
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