Alien Invasions Are Expensive
As long as humans are trading and traveling, plants and animals will be hitching lifts. The tools to track and mitigate the damage are taking on even greater importance.
Photographer: Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/AFP/ Getty Images
An 8.5-millimeter striped beetle. A 4-millimeter mosquito. A 25-millimeter hornet. These critters are tiny, but they pack a mighty punch when it comes to economic costs. The damage these organisms and their ilk are inflicting on regions around the world puts invasive alien species — non-native flora and fauna that harm the environments they’re introduced to — in the same league as extreme weather.
A paper published earlier this week in the journal Nature found that the economic burden of invasive species is 1,646% higher than previously recorded.