Invasives In Our Backyards

"Invasive" refers to the plants (and insects) brought in from abroad that are outcompeting/displacing the vegetation that best supports our pollinators. 

Next time you are driving toward Harwinton on Rt. 4, take a look at the roadsides. On our block alone, you'll notice dead ash trees, courtesy of the emerald ash borer and sick hemlocks coated in a grey furry insect (woolly adelgids)

Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, burning bush, English ivy, Japanese barberry, purple loosestrife, mugwort, Queen Anne's lace and oriental bittersweet are running the show, growing thicker and higher in the tree lines and driving out native plant life. One thing to always be on the lookout for is the infamous Tree of Heaven, the host plant to the invasive insect Spotted Lantern Fly, which has taken over southern CT and has been logged as locally as Bantam in summer of 2025. Seems one hitched a ride on a downstate visitor's car! 

Tree of Heaven looks strikingly similar to the beautiful staghorn sumac we have growing here, but its leaves have a rancid peanut butter smell when you crush them.