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Invasive sea squirt puts Connecticut's shellfish sector on alert By Natalia Real editorial@fis.com www.fis.com The invasive sea squirt Styela clava has appeared along the Eastern Seaboard and is threatening Connecticut’s USD 30 million shellfish business, informed Carmela Cuomo, head of the marine biology programme at the University of New Haven (UNH). The migration of the foreign pest southward from Canada and northern New England jeopardizes the farming of bivalves such as clams, mussels, scallops and oysters in Long Island Sound. Connecticut’s shellfish industry provides 300 jobs and has 70,000 ac of shellfish farms, according to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. “The spread of this particular species of sea squirt westward in Long Island Sound, along with laboratory studies of its temperature tolerance, indicates it can survive at higher water temperatures than scientists had previously believed,” Cuomo said. “If further testing confirms that Styela can reproduce in wa...

Kudzu bug spreads across Southern states Sharon Dowdy, News Editor UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences www.ugaextension.org Almost two years ago, a tiny immigrant pest arrived in Georgia, and there’s nothing the state’s immigration office can do to make it leave. The bean plataspid, or kudzu bug, munches on kudzu and soybeans and has now set up residence in four Southern states. Homeowners consider the bug a nuisance. Soybean producers shudder at the damage it causes. And many are hoping it will prove to be a kudzu killer. Spreading problem The kudzu bug was first spotted in Georgia in the fall of 2009 when insect samples were sent to the University of Georgia Homeowner Insect and Weed Diagnostic Laboratory in Griffin, Ga. The first samples came from UGA Cooperative Extension agents in Barrow, Gwinnett and Jackson counties. “The bug can now be found in 143 Georgia counties, all South Carolina counties, 42 North Carolina counties and 5 Alabama counties,” said Wayne ...