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See also: Silverleaf Whitefly on Potato and Silverleaf Whitefly on Cotton

Is artificial intelligence (AI) a viable tool in the fight against invasive species? UF/IFAS scientists are exploring that question on a small scale in a project using traps equipped with AI technology. For this study, the traps are targeting Argentine black and white tegus in Fort Pierce. Scientists hope these AI 'smart traps' will help suppress and remove an established population of these lizards that have quickly invaded this Treasure Coast city. St. Lucie county has become a hot spot for tegus over the last seven years.

Pigweed is a major challenge to our farmers and growers. It is extremely resilient and resistant to many herbicides, posing a significant threat to the agriculture industry. ARS scientists in Stoneville MS, along with collaborators from Clemson University, are researching the pigweed itself to find ways to mitigate this highly adaptable weed.

The National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, within the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services (WS) program, has unleashed detector dogs as a new tool to help stop the spread of feral swine, one of the United States' most destructive and ravenous invasive creatures. This is a new tool, and WS will continue to train the dogs and use them to detect nutria, feral swine, and possibly other invasive species, in the future.

The Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS) is a Web-based mapping system for documenting invasive species distribution. The majority of invasive species reporting in the U.S. occurs through or in cooperation with EDDMapS.

The Western Regional Panel prepared Quagga and Zebra Mussel Action Plan 2.0 to inform ongoing management and partnership efforts intended to minimize the spread and impacts from zebra and quagga mussels in the western United States. The original QZAP action items have guided prevention, containment, research, and management to address the ecological and economic impacts of invasive quagga and zebra mussels since 2009. The purpose of QZAP 2.0 is to provide a systematic and unified approach to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels into and within the western United States in the future. The urgency and the need for such a coordinated approach remain as important today as ever before. Newly infested waters, increased boating pressure, and gained public and political awareness drove the need for the Western Regional Panel to acknowledge and learn from the past and set forth a new collective path towards the future. These recommendations are intended to inform decision-making to provide increased capacity and clear direction that empowers the further implementation of a collaborative and coordinated multi-jurisdictional regional strategy to prevent the spread of quagga and zebra mussels in the West. For more resources, see: Key Documents

About 82% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, and that number is growing. “Frequent travel to and from cities means that trees in urban areas have high rates of exposure to invasive species like the emerald ash borer,” says Frank Koch, a USDA Forest Service research ecologist and co-author of a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology about the impacts of invasive insects on urban trees.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District is on a mission to fight hydrilla, an aggressive plant species that has wreaked havoc from Asia to every continent except Antarctica. "Hydrilla completely chokes out our waterways and impacts all the things we enjoy,” said Michael Greer, USACE Buffalo District project manager." It affects water quality, the economy, businesses, hydropower and flood reduction - ultimately our health and our wallets." Buffalo District’s main projects to eradicate hydrilla are at the Erie Canal and Tonawanda Creek, Tonawanda, NY, as well as on Cayuga Lake near Aurora, NY and Ithaca, NY. The District provides assistance on Pymatuning Lake which borders Pennsylvania and Ohio, and at Raystown Lake in south central Pennsylvania. Buffalo District is also lending expertise to a project on the Connecticut River. Funding for the project is available through the Corps of Engineers Aquatic Plant Control Research Program and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Early in October 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was faced once again with New World screwworm, which had been eradicated from the United States more than three decades ago. Infestation of this flesh-eating parasite was confirmed in deer from the National Key Deer Refuge in the Florida Keys.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) immediately began releasing sterile male flies in Florida’s affected areas as part of an aggressive eradication campaign. By March 2017, the screwworm had been successfully eradicated from Florida.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in collaboration with County Agricultural Commissioners, are proud to announce that after a year of hard work we have eradicated all populations of invasive fruit flies from California. This significant achievement is a testament to the hard work of our agencies and the critical support from the public. 

Maryland’s eastern shore has seen thousands of acres of protective marshland impacted by the nutria's destructive feeding habits. To protect the valuable resources of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project (CBNEP) began in 2002 to permanently remove invasive nutria from the marshes of the Delmarva Peninsula and to protect, enhance, and restore the aquatic and river ecosystems they damaged.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced it is taking several additional actions to ensure the health and viability of the nation’s livestock and poultry. In the two months since the initial detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle, USDA has worked quickly and in concert with its federal and state partners to better understand the virus and contain the disease and remains committed to seeking additional ways to collect the data needed to better understand and mitigate the risk created by this outbreak.
See related resource: Avian Influenza