An invasive species can be any life form (plant, animal, bacteria, mold, etc.) that negatively alters their environment. Most of these invasive species are exotic meaning that they are not native to the area and are brought into the area for various of reasons. Some of these reasons include bringing an animal from another location home with you, or planting seeds that don’t belong in a certain climate. Not all species are invasive though, it only becomes invasive when the number of births or amount of seeds that sprout are much higher in successes than in failures. When these species enter an ecosystem that they are not originally from, they can over crowd, eat, or kill off the native species that other plants and animals need to survive.
This is why it is so important to view things from afar and not bring things home with you that don’t belong at your home. Some things come in our area totally on accident. The Asian black rat, for example, hitched a ride on the cargo vessels from Asia and got off the ships when the cargo was offloaded. This has caused the Asian black rat, also known as roof rats, to invade all of Hampton Roads.
Phragmites is a plant invasive species. Much like the Asian black rat, it too came over on Eurasian trade ships in the 19th century. You can find Phragmites in pretty much all of our waterways throughout Hampton Roads.
Invasive species are bad species in any environment. They must be controlled and often times, the controlling of these organisms will cost the city, region, or state millions if not billions of dollars to eradicate (kill) or control the spread of these species.
In order to help, we need to be able to identify these organisms. And the following posts will do just that. You will be taught what the species looks like, where it can be found, where it came from, and any other useful information.