A plague of rats and rubbervines: the growing threat of species invasions

Abstract

Review: A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions By Yvonne Baskin Reviewed by Richard J. Blaustein Washington, DC, USA Yvonne Baskin. A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2002. 377 pp. ISBN 1- 55963-876-1 (cloth). US$25.00 In the summer of 2002, with front page headlines given to the Chinese Snakehead fish menacing Maryland waters and the East African West Nile virus now present in most American states, many Americans received a heady awakening to the global problems of invasive species. In fact, for quite some time in the United States, invasive species have been pervasive and doing costly damage-to ecosystems, the economy, and human health. Yet because of the complexity and global nature of invasive species phenomena, the problem is under-appreciated and not placed in its proper global context. Just at the right time, science writer Yvonne Baskin does much to explain and illuminate the problem of invasive species in her interesting and cogent book, A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions. With much focus on the United States, A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines also contains vivid sketches and examinations of invasive species situations and redress efforts in places throughout the world, such as Lake Victoria, the Galapagos Islands, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand. The United States especially suffers from invasive species, in large part because of our under-checked trade activity in which we buy 18.9% of all global imports (p. 105). Many of these invasive species not only cause economic damage but also threaten native American species with extinction. Zebra mussels, for example, native to the Black, Aral, and Caspian Seas, arrived in the Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence Seaway and have since infiltrated the Mississippi River and recently the Missouri River. Encrusting themselves on boats and in industrial water passages, the zebra mussels have cost the economy 3.1 billion dollars over a ten-year period (p. 88). They have also caused American ecologists to worry that the zebra mussel may drive ninety species of native freshwater mussels extinct in the Mississippi River Basin alone (p. 88). As bad as the invasive species is for agriculture in the United States, it is worse in many other parts of the world. The developing world is especially hard hit by invasive species, and Baskin has some very vivid passages describing the blights that persist in developing nations. In India, for example, lantana, an imported shrub from the Americas has invaded millions of hectares of crop land and pastureland. Lantana has proved to be so redoubtable that its durable presence has caused some villages to eventually abandon farming. Plant weeds like lantana and other pests accumulatively cause great damage to the health and well-being of populations all over. As Baskin points out, pests diminish global crop yields by 35 to 42%, while depleting another 20% of stored food stuffs (p. 48). One other cross-boundary aspect of invasive species discussed in Baskin's book that warrants compelling attention is the spread of disease associated with invasive species. The West Nile virus is one of 156 infectious diseases known to be emerging today (p. …