Contact: Marc Imlay | 301-442-5657 | ialm@erols.com ANNAPOLIS, MD (Sept. 5, 2003) – Before people used styrofoam peanuts as packing material, they used fabric, wood shavings or dried plant leaves and stems to protect breakables in shipping. One of the worst invasive weeds in the Mid-Atlantic states, Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) probably was introduced as packaging […]

ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 4, 2003) – With a bite hotter than the southern summer, the omnivorous Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, is the state’s most recent invasive species of the month. Since the first detection of the insect in Maryland in 1986, it has been intercepted by aggressive surveillance and eradication efforts of the Maryland […]

ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 8, 2003) – In the 1880’s, settlers brought the Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) plant from Europe to the New World, to use for medicine and as a flavoring agent in soups. But this plant, named by the Maryland Invasive Species Council as May’s “Invader of the Month,” proved to be more like […]

Contact: Don R. Robbins | 410-841-5920 ANNAPOLIS, MD (April 2, 2003) – Beware of the Giant Hogweed, a giant perennial plant named by the Maryland Invasive Species Council(MISC) as April’s “Invader of the Month.” While interesting for its unusually large size and flower, the Giant Hogweed is on the federal noxious weed list because of […]

Contact: Robert H. Tichenor, Maryland Department of Agriculture | 410-841-5920 ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 13, 2003) – A small insect from eastern Asia is severely impacting Maryland’s hemlocks, an important evergreen tree. The hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae, native to China and Japan, is a serious threat to the health and sustainability of hemlocks in eastern North […]