With the holidays officially wrapped, it’s time to start boxing up your decorations. But before tossing out any natural decor, experts are asking revelers to check for invasive species.
In Ontario, most cottage country municipalities require property owners to drop off natural decorations, such as Christmas trees and wreaths, at the local landfill. But if you’ve brought foliage from home or even purchased a Christmas tree that was grown in another part of the province or country, you could be spreading an invasive species that can damage the local ecosystem.
Some of the most common invasives, when it comes to holiday decor, are berry-bearing plants such as English holly, common buckthorn, invasive bittersweet, and invasive barberry. “A lot of people tend to like to use them for their outdoor displays, like baskets and wreaths,” says David Dutkiewicz, an entomology technician with the Invasive Species Centre.
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If tossed into the landfill, the plants’ berries fall off, spreading their seeds. The seeds can also be spread by birds eating the berries. Once established, these invasive plants choke out native species by using their deep roots to compete for water and nutrients. They also change the environment by adding elements such as sulfur to the soil.
To avoid this, Dutkiewicz recommends double bagging wreaths and other foliage, especially ones with berries, before dropping it off at the landfill. “That’s the best way to prevent them from spreading,” he says. “Then they’ll get buried in the landfill.”
Dutkiewicz also suggests cottagers give their Christmas tree a once over before carting it off to landfill. In the summer of 2020, Ontario had an infestation of spongy moths (formerly known as gypsy moths). In its caterpillar stage, the invasive species damaged 583,157 hectares of forest by consuming vast amounts of leaves, impacting tree health.
Typically, the species is attracted to oak, laying its eggs on the tree’s bark. But that summer, Dutkiewicz says, there were so many spongy moths that they began laying eggs on any tree surface they could find, including firs used for Christmas trees.
The eggs, a tanned yellow mass with the texture of a tennis ball, are not a threat when inside your cottage, but once at the landfill, they could hatch leading to an infestation of spongy moths.
Photo by Shutterstock/Mark van Dam
If you do spot spongy moth eggs on your Christmas tree, the Invasive Species Centre advises donning gloves and protective glasses before scraping the mass off with a butter knife into a bucket of dish soap and water. Let the eggs soak for 48 hours before disposing of them in the garbage. The invasive Species Centre asks that you snap a picture of the eggs and report the sighting to EDDMapS, iNaturalist, or call the invading species hotline at 1-800-563-7711.
Dutkiewicz adds that since the 2020 infestation, spongy moth populations have been lower in Ontario.
The other species to look out for on Christmas trees is the spotted lanternfly. This colourful insect has the potential to devastate grapevines, impacting wine production in Southern Ontario. “A lot of the wine industry in New York and Pennsylvania is having to overuse pesticides to get rid of the spotted lanternfly in vineyards, and so it’s becoming a big problem for farmers and vineyard owners,” Dutkiewicz says.
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The spotted lanternfly lays its eggs on hard surfaces, anything from the bark of Christmas trees to outdoor furniture at the cottage. These egg masses, which look like smears of grey-brown mud, are laid in the fall or winter. If you suspect that you’ve found a spotted lanternfly egg mass, scrape it into a plastic bag that contains hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol, and seal it. If you don’t have either of those products, you can store the plastic bag in the freezer.
Photo by Shutterstock/Jay Ondreicka
But before scraping off the mass, the Invasive Species Centre recommends taking a picture and sending it to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (who also deal with plant life), along with details about the location of the mass. Dutkiewicz says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will then advise you on what to do with it.
He adds that there were only five occurrences of spotted lanternflies in Canada over the last year.
With both the spongy moth and the spotted lanternfly, once you’ve scraped the egg mass from the bark, your Christmas tree is safe to head to landfill.
“If you’re ever unsure, it’s always good just to ask,” Dutkiewicz says.
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