Center for Invasive Species Research (CISR)

Experts issue warning as 2-inch menace threatens multimillion-dollar industry: 'It's an invisible pest'

tomwt — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 16:12:44 +0000

Experts issue warning as 2-inch menace threatens multimillion-dollar industry: 'It's an invisible pest' tomwt Tue, 08/19/2025 - 09:12 More CNAS in the Media Yei Ling Ma | The Cool Down August 19, 2025

THE COOL DOWN - Palm trees in Uruguay have been under attack by an invasive pest, causing death and destruction to more than thousands of the country's beloved trees, the Associated Press reported.

What's happening?
The red palm weevil, a large-snout beetle species native to Southeast Asia, has been wreaking havoc on palm trees within the country since its arrival in 2022.

According to the University of California, Riverside's Center for Invasive Species Research, the 2-inch bugs are usually attracted to unhealthy palm trees, which are easier to target. However, they will also attack healthy palms.

Red palm weevils find exposed wounds of pruned palm trees and will bore holes in them, creating tunnels and depositing hundreds of eggs in them, per the AP. When the larvae hatch, the young insects will eat through the tree's internal tissues, damaging and weakening the tree's trunk, causing the tree to be destroyed from within.

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Frogs rescued from a deadly fungus welcome 33 froglets

tomwt — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:51:39 +0000

Frogs rescued from a deadly fungus welcome 33 froglets tomwt Thu, 02/13/2025 - 07:51 More CNAS in the Media Laura Baisas | Popular Science February 04, 2025

POPULAR SCIENCE - Following a 7,000-mile-long rescue mission for conservation, 33 tiny Southern Darwin’s frogs (Rhinoderma darwinii) were born at London Zoo. This species is particularly susceptible to the deadly chytrid fungus, currently impacting their native habitat in the forests and glades of Argentina and Chile.

In October 2024, conservationists from the Zoological Society of London traveled to a remote part of an island off the coast of Chile. Their mission was to retrieve healthy frogs for safeguarding at the London Zoo. Populations of this species found in the Parque Tantauco forests in southern Chile faced devastation in 2023 with the arrival of chytrid fungus. About 90 percent of monitored populations died within a year due to amphibian chytridiomycosis.

This fungal disease affects at least 500 amphibian species and is considered among the most devastating infectious diseases. According to the University of California, Riverside Center for Invasive Species Research, it infects amphibians by latching onto the keratin in the mouthparts of tadpoles and skin of adults. The growth of the fungus eventually causes the skin to slough off and amphibians to lose weight, become lethargic and die. Outbreaks have been reported in parts of Australia, Central and North America, Europe, and Asia since it was first documented in the late 1990s.

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Riverside hosts influential invasive plant conference for the first time

ilseu — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:15:13 +0000

Riverside hosts influential invasive plant conference for the first time ilseu Mon, 10/28/2019 - 14:15 More College News Jules Bernstein | Inside UCR October 25, 2019

Riverside recently hosted the California Invasive Plant Council symposium for the first time in the history of the decades-old gathering.

“Having the symposium here underscores UC Riverside’s long-standing and growing importance to the field of land management and invasive plant species research,” said event committee member Lynn Sweet, a plant ecologist at UCR’s Palm Desert Center.

Sweet presented on Sahara mustard, an invasive plant that has “exploded in the last 50 years in the Coachella Valley, competing with native species and crowding out some of the popular wildflower displays,” Sweet said.

Several hundred people traveled from across the state to attend the Oct. 15-18 event at the Riverside Convention Center. The crowd was a mix of professional government and nonprofit land managers, graduate students, university faculty members, and others who came to share strategies for protecting plants, animals, and open spaces under the increasing pressure of climate change.

“For me, one of the highlights was being exposed to some out-of-the-box thinking about how to tackle thorny weed management issues on really large landscapes,” said Loralee Larios, an assistant professor of botany and plant sciences at UCR.

One example of an innovative approach to fighting invasive species presented at the conference is to use a pressure washing hose to kill weeds as an alternative to herbicides. The chemicals can accumulate in the environment and cause problems for other living things, but water of course is harmless. Another innovation is using drones or satellites to identify areas most in need of weed treatment and where topography would result in the most successful treatment.

“This conference is really a fantastic opportunity for professionals and researchers to share what they know, what’s being done now, and what more could be done to protect our open spaces,” Larios said.

In her own laboratory on campus, Larios and her students are trying to understand how environmental change might encourage the growth of various invasive plant species, and how to use that information to mitigate negative impacts.

The Larios lab is paying special attention to a nonnative invasive plant called Stinknet, a very fragrant form of chamomile spreading across western Riverside County and other parts of California.

“It’s invading habitats that traditionally house several endangered animal species that need more open bare ground,” Larios said. “Stinknet creates a dense mat that makes it hard for animals like the Stevens kangaroo rat or the cactus wren to move around and feed on the native plants they prefer.”

One of the symposium’s activities included a field trip to UCR’s Motte Rimrock Reserve in Perris Valley to observe the Stinknet invasion and highlight research to control it, like the work coming out of Larios’ lab.

The weeklong event featured several UCR speakers, including entomologist Mark Hoddle, director of UCR’s Center for Invasive Species Research; and Norm Ellstrand, a distinguished professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, who has a long history of studying invasive plant species.

Readers wondering how they can help control the spread of invasive plants and pests in California can head to the Cal-IPC website, which includes resources for residents. These include suggestions for plants to avoid in landscaping, beneficial alternatives, and places where people of all ages can volunteer for land management projects.

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Eating Insects: Like Them Stir Fried or Curried?

edraws — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 20:04:24 +0000

Eating Insects: Like Them Stir Fried or Curried? edraws Tue, 06/18/2019 - 13:04 More College News October 01, 2013 Riverside, Ca

UC Riverside's Mark Hoddle helps Canadian research team win the Hult Prize

On Sept. 23, the Clinton Global Initiative awarded the Hult Prize, worth $1 million, to a team of student entrepreneurs at McGill University, Canada. Mark Hoddle, the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research at the University of California, Riverside, served as a consultant to the team whose goal was to combat hunger and nutrition deficiencies in impoverished regions by improving insect-based meals.

Hoddle, an extension specialist in entomology and an expert on both the red palm weevil and weevil farming in southeast Asia, traveled to Thailand Sept. 14-19 with a member of the winning team to assess red palm weevil farming practices.

“I did a whirlwind tour of the weevil farms with McGill University’s Gabriel Mott, an MBA student, and prepared a report and visuals from the trip for the package his team submitted for the Hult Prize,” Hoddle said. “On Sept. 23, I watched on the internet as the team pitched live in New York City in front a really big audience and an auspicious judging panel that included Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and guess what – the team won!”

A dish of cooked weevil larvae. Photo credit: Hoddle Lab, UC Riverside.

Entomophagy is the consumption of insects by humans for food — an ancient practice that tends to be concentrated in certain parts of the world, notably tropical and sub-tropical regions, where there is a diversity of large insects.

“Insects are excellent low cost sources of protein and essential nutrients,” Hoddle said. “Edible insects can often be sustainably harvested from wilderness areas and have very low carbon footprints if farmed for personal consumption or as a commercial enterprise.”

Due to interest in eating insects because of their nutritional and environmental benefits, and because a wide diversity of insects are eaten daily by millions of humans, there is interest in the viability of mass collection, production, or farming of certain species for food.

“This is already being done in some areas, with a notable example being the mass collection and subsequent preparation and sale of chapalines, a type of grasshopper, in Oaxaca, southern Mexico,” Hoddle said. “Another insect that has significant potential for mass production or farming are palm weevils. Larvae and pupae of these species are widely eaten in southeast Asia and farmed to a limited extent in some countries, notably Thailand.”

McGill University’s Gabriel Mott shops for red palm weevil larvae in Thailand. Photo credit: Hoddle Lab, UC Riverside.

More information is available on Hoddle’s blog.

Watch a 2012 video of Hoddle eating larvae.

Next, Hoddle plans to set up weevil farms in Ghana with the McGill team.

“They have a native palm weevil that is eaten but the larvae are not farmed,” he said.

There are three main ways red palm weevil larvae and pupae are prepared for eating: (1) stir-fried in a wok (very common), (2) prepared as a curry dish with vegetables, or (3) battered and deep fried. Sometimes live larvae may be eaten after floating in soy sauce. Cooked red palm weevil larvae and pupae provide a substantial and hearty meal either on their own or when supplemented with additional vegetables and rice or noodles.

Weevil larvae are very easy to farm, production costs are low, and profit margins are potentially high. Preparation of weevils, especially larvae, for cooking is straight-forward.

“Because larvae lack legs and antennae, it is easy to ‘disguise’ the fact that they are insects when prepared for consumption,” Hoddle said. “This is especially true when larvae are battered and deep fried. Cooking weevil larvae and pupae in creative ways, and perhaps developing a catchy marketing name, may enhance marketability and acceptance as a food, especially in areas where entomophagy is uncommon or insects are viewed as unclean and unsuitable for eating.”

In Thailand, Nittaya Ummarat, a post-graduate researcher at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research Center, helped translate Thai into English.

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Mark Hoddle