Asian longhorned beetles (ALB) are many things, but picky eaters isn’t one of them. It’s part of the reason they’re now such persistent pests throughout the northern United States. Worse, they’re approaching something of an outright pestilence. These non-native invaders are mincing maple populations, trashing elms, making a buffet of poplars and will happily bore into a wide menu of other tree genera! But thanks to a partnership with the Sentinel Plant Network, a USDA-funded collaboration between North American public gardens and other concerned groups, the NYBG is proud to serve as one of a number of “watchposts” striving to counter the menace through safe, effective means. That’s where our bug traps come in.

Native to Japan, China, and Korea, Anoplophora glabripennis first made its U.S. presence known in 1996. Soon after, it was found in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and a slew of other countries less than welcoming of their newest guests. By the time authorities concluded that hardwood shipping crates were to blame, it was too late to shut the door: the beetles were already reproducing, boring into trees to lay their eggs. Upon hatching, the larvae then ravage the trees further, feasting on bark and inner wood. And 16 years later, the hunt continues for a fool-proof means of eradicating the ALB from American forests.
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Meet Doug Tallamy, an expert on the importance of native plants in our landscape and how to care for them — Thursday, February 16, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Mattei.

Doug Tallamy knows how important a diverse native plant community is for other living creatures, especially insects. He has devoted much of his career to understanding the many ways insects interact with plants, creating essential food webs without which our ecosystems would fail.

His award-winning book and website, Bringing Nature Home, is a call to action for gardeners across the country to use native plants to sustain wildlife, promote biodiversity, and protect our ecosystems.

In his book, Tallamy recounts his own “epiphany” when his family moved to 10 acres in southeastern Pennsylvania, an area “farmed for centuries before being subdivided and sold.” He discovered that “at least 35% of the vegetation on our property consisted of aggressive plant species from other continents that were rapidly replacing what native plants we did have.” And he noticed something else: the alien plants on the property, such as the Norway maples and the mile-a-minute weeds, had “very little or no leaf damage from insects.”
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Project Looks to Catalog Six-Legged Residents and More

Edgardo Rivera is Senior Curatorial Assistant in the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium.

Many people walk through the Forest at NYBG in search of a break from the city and without concern for the names of the trees and flowers they encounter along the path. Others may stop occasionally to watch a passing chipmunk or to photograph the jewelweed. More tenacious individuals, armed with binoculars or perhaps a zoom lens on a camera, will specifically seek out the feathered denizens of the Forest but not many give a second look for the armored creatures that fly past them, the cold-blooded ones that slither under rotting logs, or the nocturnal beings that sit quietly under debris waiting for night to fall.

However, an effort to catalog these creatures is under way as part of the Garden’s Natural History project. Led by Jessica A. Schuler, Manager of the Forest, and Rob Naczi, Ph.D., Curator of North American Botany, the project has assembled specialists from different fields to identify the flora, fauna, and geography of the many habitats within the Forest. read more »