Introduced Problems (list of introduced species with descriptions)
And in some cases we have, no doubt, our own kind (gardeners) to blame. And in all cases we have our own kind (humans) to blame.
Within living memory (as they say)—in this case my living memory—the following nasty little fellow-travelers had not yet come onstage:
Fuchsia mite—a horrible deformer of fuchsia leaves, uglifying and disfiguring the whole plant in no time flat. Some species and cultivars get it worse than others, but it’s here, it’s nasty, and it’s not going away, thank you. So much for one of our most rewarding and beautiful, reliable, easy-to-grow, eminently “collectible” genera—and the loser is not only gardeners but also the hummingbirds, because, as you are no doubt well aware, Fuchsia is one of the absolute, number one hummer magnets. Of course, you can still grow fuchsias, but the good old days are over. This little, eight-legged nemesis first hit the newspapers about 198-?
Eugenia (mite?)—does to Syzygium (Australian brush-cherry) what the fuchsia mite does to fuchsias. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to affect true eugenias and their relatives, but then hardly anybody grows those. Arrived a bit after the fuchsia mite—1980s?
Pepper tree deformer—some fungus? Virus? Uglifies and kills the leaves of this graceful old Californian. Leaves become covered gradually by little raised “craters” until the whole tree and all its leaves look hideous. Also arrived around the late 1980s.
White pine blister rust—introduced from Europe early 1900s (alternate host is Ribes)—government sponsored massive Ribes-grubbing campaigns (failures) and spraying campaigns (ditto), i.e. more environmental damage in the attempt to cure a simple mistake.
Peach leaf-curl—has been around for ages, as have apple worms and bacterial canker and a host of other orchard nightmares. By now we take them for granted, and (some of us) bring out the chemicals. This onslaught of new garden/farm/orchard pests and diseases have been a great boon for the petro-chemical industry. A major mega-business, the invention of poisons, the manufacturing of poisons, the advertising and sale and application of poisons, even the disposal of poisons . . . all thanks to a bunch of critters that are mostly too small to even see. And to think that we didn’t have to import any of those little money-making plant-ravagers. Oh well, if we hadn’t brought them here by mistake, some starving poison salesman would have brought them in on purpose. Silent spring? We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Pine-pitch-canker—this slow killer of Monterey pine and occasional other conifers made headlines for a while, starting about the mid-1990s? Every bug has to get its fifteen minutes of fame.
Oak sudden-death syndrome—only the latest in the never-ending parade of diseases-of-the-hour. [explain a bit] No doubt by the time you read this, there will have been several more headline-making plant plagues to hit our shores. First discovered in 1995 in Marin County; as of December 2001 it is in ten counties: Monterey to Mendocino and inland to Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano (Alameda?). Phytophthera ramorum, also known in Germany and Netherlands. Oaks and seemingly all other native trees and shrubs including Ericaceae, Lonicera, Umbellularia, Acer, Viburnum, Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Vaccinium, Rhododendron.
Walnut husk-fly—converts the nice green husks of ripening walnuts to a nasty black sludge that sticks to the walnut shell (normally the husk dries and falls away cleanly from the nut). This first showed up in my neighborhood about the early 1970s, and walnuts have never been the same since. [P.S. to this: Another introduced “pest”, the European starling, has at last found one way to be endearing (well, to be fair, they are entertaining little bastards in their own cheeky way): they discovered that walnut husk-fly maggots were good to eat, and so now they glean through the black slime picking the little white grubs out. Yum. On the other hand, they’ve discovered a taste for avocados!
Asparagus beetle—arrived late 70s or early 80s. Ugly larvae defoliate asparagus plants (the “fern” parts which makes the shoot part possible).
Also, recent unknown diseases affecting:
- Bigleaf maples. Whole branches, sometimes whole trees, suddenly turn brown and die. First noticed ca. early 90s?
- White alder. Many of the alders on Soquel Creek etc. suddenly died. This disease is known, I think (check up).
- Madrones. Similar symptoms to the maple dieback disease and about the same timing
It’s starting to look like nothing but redwood is safe. Maybe if we all cared as much about our other trees as we seem to care about redwoods . . .
In the eastern half of the country, several introduced organisms caused major disasters:
- Chestnut blight. Wiped out one of the commonest, most majestic, most valuable, most useful and beautiful native trees.
- Dutch elm disease. Wiped out the native American elms, an extremely stately and beautiful giant tree that once shaded countless quiet residential streets, especially in New England.
- Gypsy moth. Defoliates entire forests, again and again, weakening the trees and making winter-bare treescapes in the middle of summer.
In addition to innumerable pathogenic microbes (bacteria, protozoan?, viruses, fungi)
Fish
Birds
House sparrow
European Starling
Snakes (none here, but)
Arachnids
Honeybee mites—a new problem—mid 90s?
Other nasty mites (scabies,
Hymenoptera
Apis—Eur. Our fried and ally, but dreadful competition
Vespula valg., V. penn?—terrible stings and ruin picnics, but their worst effect is on native insects
Psocites
Psocids (booklice)
Coleoptera
Japanese beetle—Asia. Not a problem here?
Asparagus beetle
Diabrotica—European?
Some weevils—European?
Carpet beetles—European?
Lepidoptera (all moths except Cabbage butterfly)
Corn earworm—native!?
Tent caterpillar—native? And no longer a problem
Apple worm—European
Clothes moth—European?
Gypsy moth—not a problem in California. European.
Cabbage worm—European
Diptera
Walnut husk fly
Mediterranean fly—its day in the sun was ca. late 80s.
Other fruit flies
House fly, blowflies, etc. just annoying and nasty
Molluscs
Crustaceans
Roundworms
Earthworms (non-native ones)—check with Grey
Amphibians
Bullfrog
Mammals
Opossum
Dogs, cats, us
Orthoptera
Some species
Plants
Eucalyptus, Acacia, broom, many other woody plants, ripgut
