What are invasive species? Visit the Asian Longhorned Beetle and others.
What is an invasive species? Exactly what it sounds like. Invasive species are literally species of living things, plant or animal, that are in a place where they are not from. Some invasive species came on ships, and whether the crew knew it or didn't, they still arrived. You may be wondering why invasive species are bad, and here's why. Invasive species don't fit in with the ecosystem. They don't belong there, and were built for a different ecosystem. So the invasive species do what they do, and the others do what they do. Only sometimes, the invasive species mess up the balance of the environment. Today, we're going to be focusing on the Asian Longhorned Beetle. What are we waiting for? Let's dive in!
The Asian Longhorned Beetle is obviously an invasive species from Asia. These nasty creepy crawlies are bad for the hard wood trees in which they reside. They damage things called a phloem (tissue that conducts the sugar and stuff down from the leaves) and a xlyem (tissue that conducts water and stuff up from the roots), which hurts the plants. As you can see, they don't work with the ecosystem, and the ecosystem doesn't work with them. And please don't get distracted by that GIF up there, I just uploaded it to show you how it acts. Anyway, it's not like we are defenseless from these annoying bugs, we can all try to help!
There are many organizations that try to kill these invasive species, you might've heard of some for plants. In fact, I have been to a few nature preserves where we pulled out invasive species and bagged or burned them. When the pandemic is over, be sure to check them out and do your part.
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