EXOTIC INVADERS: The global economy is helping invasive pests to become world travelers

摘要

Biltonen farms 600 acres of fruit in western New York, an hour west of Syracuse. Half of the acreage is devoted to apples, and on the other half they grow about 15 different crops, mostly stone fruits and berries. Along with the entomologists, Biltonen pins the blame on the increase in invasive pests on globalization. But he also wonders whether a changing climate — whatever the reason for it — is to blame. "They (invasive pests) couldn't overwinter here in the past," he says. "But we didn't have much snow last winter (2011-12) at all." Biltonen didn't pay much attention to spotted wing dro-sophila (SWD) when he first heard about it in 2010, largely because there was no record of it in Western New York. In 2011, researchers at Cornell University,which is located virtually right across the street from Red Jacket, put out some vinegar traps and caught a few SWD. The researchers caught a lot more in 2012, and then late that summer SWD "just blew up," he said. "They destroyed our fall raspberry crop." They won't even try to grow a fall raspberry crop this year, he says.