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Updated June 14 -------------------------------------------------------- N.Y. setting traps for invasive beetles Dave Henderson, Ithaca Journal New York is targeting another potential invasive species, a tree-eating beetle named the Emerald Ash Borer. The Department of Environmental Conservation will be deploying the purple prism traps in treelines throughout the state in an attempt to trap the beetles. There will also be a concentration in areas adjacent to neighboring states and Canadian provinces that have already detected this potentially devastating invasive species. The main route that enables this insect, as well as other invasive species, to spread is from moving firewood from one place to another. That is why in 2008, New York adopted regulations that ban untreated firewood from entering the state and restricts intrastate movement of untreated firewood to no more than a 50-mile radius from its source ( http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html ). New York has more than 900 mill...

Updated 3/20 -------------------------------------------------------- Vitex eradication effort gains traction Group tallies past year's accomplishments By Gareth McGrath, StarNewsOnline.com Fort Fisher, North Carolina - The invasive plant has been discovered in Virginia and in places in North Carolina thought to be vitex-free. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, since it shows that the educational and outreach efforts of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force about the menace posed by the foreign invader are working. It also shows, however, that there's a lot of work to do to eradicate the shrub. It is native to the Pacific Rim and was once viewed as the savior of the coast, but it's turned out to be a huge biological menace. On Friday members of the task force gathered at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher to celebrate the past year's successes and discuss the remaining challenges facing the multi-state effort to eradicate beach vitex. Among the 2008 accomplishment...