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A variety of organizations have developed educational materials on AIM. They can be used to learn more and teach others about these harmful plants and animals.

USDA Forest Service researchers are monitoring the effects of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease from Eurasia that has decimated cave-hibernating bats across the U.S. since its arrival in 2006. "The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome grows on bats in the wintertime. It causes them to wake up during their hibernation and burn their fat reserves," says Phillip Jordan, wildlife biologist. Jordan is among the experts featured in a new video, Bats on the Brink. Forestry technician Virginia McDaniel created and produced the video.

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is one of the worst invasive plants in the South. It dominates the shrub layer and often becomes the only shrub underneath trees, especially in streamside areas. But insects and spiders living in fallen leaves and leaf litter were not affected by a privet invasion in Georgia, as a recent study shows.

Chinese tallow tree (Triadica sebifera) is a nonnative, invasive tree whose decaying leaf litter alters water quality and the microbial community in the wetland habitats. This negatively impacts the lifecycle of semi-aquatic species like frogs.

CompassLive provides latest updates and is an online science magazine of the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station.
See also: Exotic and Invasive Species articles and Plant Diseases articles.

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) can be found across most of the eastern U.S. and in a few western states as well. The nonnative tree was brought to the U.S. in 1917 by a USDA employee searching for a blight-resistant species that could be bred with European pear to increase fruit production.

The most common Callery pear cultivar is the Bradford pear. In the last two decades, this near-ubiquitous landscaping tree has been identified as a serious invasive pest. A new publication examines herbicide treatments to control the spread of Callery pear. Lead author J.T. Vogt is a research scientist with the USDA Forest Service.

Forests are incredibly important to pollinators. Forest pollinators can also provide substantial economic benefits to neighboring agricultural areas, as a new global review paper discusses. Forest pollinators are easy to overlook – they are often highly seasonal, especially in temperate regions, and many are active far above our heads in the forest canopy.

See also: Other Publications and Reports

A worm is a worm is a worm, right? Except that there are more than 7,000 species of worms, and the longer you look, the more complex their world becomes. Earthworms compete. Earthworms invade. Earthworms… jump?

Whether called wild pigs, feral hogs, or wild boars, these opportunistic and invasive omnivores live in groups called sounders. Removing whole sounders is the most effective management method, but requires follow-up trapping and hunting due to their incredible reproductive potential.

Provides field notes on forest pest research, including invasive pests.
Note: Content is also available by email subscription.

Fire ants cause significant harm not only to humans, but to the food we grow? Imported fire ants have invaded about 350 million acres in the U.S., and they cause approximately $8 billion in economic damages per year.

Learn more about what’s happening with this invasive species that has spread throughout the southern U.S., and what ARS is doing about it, as the Office of Communications launches a week-long fire ant campaign (June 22-28, 2024). ARS will feature videos, articles, and interviews with our scientists who are leading the fight against these tiny invaders.
See also: Fire ant articles in Tellus

Native freshwater mussels grew more slowly when invasive Asian clams (Corbicula fluminea) were abundant. The study was led by Wendell Haag, a USDA Forest Service research fisheries biologist. The study, "Abundance of an invasive bivalve, Corbicula fluminea, is negatively related to growth of freshwater mussels in the wild" was published in the journal Freshwater Biology. Mussels live out of sight – buried in the river bottom, eating algae and other small particles of organic material. Mussels are filter feeders and key members of aquatic ecosystems. Unfortunately, mussels are disappearing worldwide, and about 70 percent of the 300 mussel species native to the U.S. are in danger of extinction. Addressing mussel declines is difficult because their causes are mostly unknown.

The invasive Asian jumping worm (Amynthas agrestis) has many common names: Alabama jumpers, Jersey wrigglers, wood eel, crazy worms, snake worms, and crazy snake worms. “Invasive Asian jumping worms got their name because of the way they thrash around,” said Mac Callaham, a Forest Service researcher who specializes in soils. “They can flip themselves a foot off the ground.”

Like other earthworms, Asian jumping worms eat tiny pieces of fallen leaves. But there’s a problem. Those fallen leaves make up the top layer of forest soil. The litter layer, as it’s called, is home to a vast number of tiny animals. Many plants can’t grow or spread without the layer of leaf litter. “Soil is the foundation of life – and Asian jumping worms change it,” says Callaham. “In fact, earthworms can have such huge impacts that they’re able to actually reengineer the ecosystems around them.”

Forest Service scientists have published a guide synthesizing best practices for controlling these tiny bugs. It promotes a strategy of combining insecticide use with adelgid-eating insects.

Laurel wilt is a disease of woody plants in the laurel family (Lauraceae). Hundreds of millions of redbay (Persea borbonia) trees have been killed by laurel wilt in the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain region of the United States (US). The disease has also killed large numbers of sassafras (Sassafras albidum) trees in forests and landscapes, and avocado (Persea americana) trees in commercial production. As of October 2019, laurel wilt was known to occur from Texas to North Carolina, south through Florida and north to Kentucky. Laurel wilt is expected to continue spreading through sassafras in the eastern US, and is a potential threat to California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) in the western US and to lauraceous species elsewhere in the world.
See also: Region 8 - Forest & Grassland Health for more information.

Since 2002, forests in the southeastern U.S. have struggled against a disease called laurel wilt. In 18 years, laurel wilt has spread to 11 southeastern states and killed hundreds of millions of trees. A review article by USDA Forest Service scientist Rabiu Olatinwo reflects on the origins and spread of laurel wilt throughout the last several years. Olatinwo, a research plant pathologist at the SRS, published this research with recently retired plant pathologist Stephen Fraedrich and research entomologist Bud Mayfield in the journal Forests.

Includes species related publications, webinars and other resources.

Includes species related publications, webinars and other resources.

Includes species related publications, webinars and other resources.