They come per cargo ship, are entered by pet stores or lay their eggs in the tires of a car of a holiday maker. In Brabant and the rest of our country we now have many exotic critters and plants such as the Asian hornet, American crayfish and the tiger mosquito. They consciously or unconsciously reach our country borders and often cause many problems for nature. Do we have to keep fighting them? Or can we learn to live better with it?
“Learning to live with it is very difficult,” starts forest ranger Frans Kapteijns. “Many species that we get here have no natural enemy in the Netherlands and can therefore go their way undisturbed.” The American crayfish is a good example of this.
“That beast is an ecological and economic disaster. The lobster increases enormously quickly and they eat food from Dutch crayfish,” he explains. “Moreover, the American species can crawl out of the water and simply hit the next ditch or stream again.” The Dutch cannot.
And the Asian hornet also provides a lot of hassle in our country. The animal accidentally ended up in France in 2004 via a container ship from China. Since 2017, the Netherlands has also been at home. But the beast here is a threat to insects and sometimes also for people and the nests pop up like mushrooms.
Finally, Frans mentions the giant hogweed as an example. That is not a giant snack, but a huge, toxic exotic plant. “Around the 1950s we brought it to the Netherlands because we liked the flower for bouquets,” says Frans. “But these plants also have no natural enemies here and so they grow loose. Removing it is a job. Because if you touch them, the bear’s claw stings a lot that gives you gigantic bumps. If the juice comes into your eyes, you can actually forget it.” You then run the risk of becoming blind.
“People don’t think about the consequences.”
How do the animals and plants end up here? “They are sold by stores as a special animal species. That’s how the American crayfish came here,” says the forester. “In fact, you can say that people drag far too much from other countries and do not think about what consequences that can have. The animals end the risk of people and nature and they can carry diseases.”
As mentioned before, it is difficult to live together with this flora and fauna because the animals and plants do not know natural enemies. Frans does have a different solution.
“No predators from abroad.”
“Pet shops, but also tourists, should not bring animals from abroad. And certainly not predators. Otherwise the natural ratio is crooked. For example, we already have fewer insects in our country. Just look at your car window.”
Yet we live together with some indigenous species, Frans knows. “We often have fewer problems with animals that come here on our own. We live together with Julikeevers, who used to be very rare and are now common. And also with the French field wasp and the Vlinder Spanish flag can also be living together,” says Frans.
“They have received a natural enemy,” he explains. “Birds have learned to eat them with the times.”
You can do this against invasive exotics:
- Do not release exotic animals or plants in nature.
- Never throw aquarium or pond plants in the ditch or pond. This also applies to fish, lobsters or snails.
- Spacious garden waste in the right waste bin. The node is part of the residual waste, not with green waste.
- Do not buy an invasive plant.
