International trade imperils U.S. plants, animals and crops
...ct pests and plant pathogens arrive in the U.S. as stowaways on nursery stock, raw logs or cargo containers. And many invasive exotic plants are purposely introduced through the horticultural market." Alien invaders already cost the country $136 billion every year in lost and damaged products and the expense...Radio waves stop marine pests dead in their tracks
... immigrated to the United States in the mid-80s as stowaways on foreign ships. Although first discovered in the Great Lakes, they are now causing trouble in nearly every body of fresh water from the Mississippi River to the Ohio River to inland lakes in Wisconsin. Chemicals such as chlorine and bromine have b...Bug vs. bug: scientists use microorganisms to target destructive termites
...at the insects were first carried here as unwanted stowaways aboard wooden shipping crates carrying supplies home from the Pacific following World War II. Environmental factors here, including high humidity and moderate temperatures, allowed them to spread. Environmental and health concerns have resulted in t...Cryptic stowaways in fouling communities or ballast water of seagoing ships may look exactly like local marine animals. But a comparison of brittlestars reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society suggests that human-aided dispersal gradually blurs important gen...