Walk through a hardwood forest this month and it may seem more like October than July. Trees that normally provide cool shade have bare crowns with just a hint of green. And is the bark on that sugar maple moving? This is not a trick of the light: you are, in fact, in the middle of a forest tent caterpillar outbreak.

 

Residents and people traveling through Bethel, VT have been witness to a spectacular display of insect webbing.  Entire trees, chain link fences and large patches of ground cover plants are covered with silken webbing – as if someone went overboard with decorations for Halloween.  The scene has prompted calls to the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.

Will invasive species ruin baseball? 

Well no, not really. However, quite a few people, including Major League Baseball are concerned that they could ruin a part of baseball tradition. The enemy this time is the emerald ash borer. The metallic green beetle should not be anywhere in the United States but it hitched rides over to our country using our modern methods of transportation. More specifically, this beetle came by way of cargo ships across the ocean.

An emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) larvae is revealed successfully developing in the wood of a cultivated olive tree—adding a second species to the list of non-ash trees that the invasive insect can attack.