Florida researchers are raising money to create a rapid response fund to battle invasive pests discovered in Florida's agricultural fields.
Non-native bugs can hitch a ride on all kinds of plant material being shipped through the state's nearly 30 ports.
Edward "Gilly" Evans, director of the UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, said Florida gets about one new pest or plant disease every month.
"The problem is that when these pests or diseases enter the country, we have to act with speed because they are moving with speed," he said.
Scientists have to diagnose them, contain them, and try to eradicate them — all of which costs money.
To compound that, Florida's continuously warming climate has allowed plant pests and diseases to spread further and wider.
"It's getting warmer even further north, so when these pests and these diseases come in, they are spreading rapidly," he said.
Take the two-spot cotton leafhopper. It was first discovered sucking sap from Florida's cotton and okra leaves a couple of years ago before invading Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina.
There's also the red palm mite that feeds on the state's ornamental palms, coconuts, and bananas; the conehead termite, which damages wooden structures along with live or dead trees; and the pasture mealybug, which is sucking on the sap of Florida's sugarcane crops.
Gov. Ron DeSantis amended an executive order just this month to include the pasture mealybug.
According to the Florida Department of Agriculture's website, it has now been confirmed in 25 counties: Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Jackson, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, St. Lucie, Sarasota and Seminole.
The most notorious invasive pest across the state is the Asian citrus psyllid, which has decimated the state's iconic citrus industry over the past 20 years. It hasn't been eradicated, so growers have adapted to working with infected trees.
It can take a long time to get funding approval when a new invasion emerges, so Evans started collecting donations for a financial reserve of $250,000 called Challenge 250.
"It's giving our scientists that flexibility so immediately they can jump into action," he said. "It's the difference between us managing a problem and us chasing a problem."
The emergency fund, which he said is necessary to protect our food system and local growers, is meant to build back up once it's been used and once they find longer-term funding.
TREC will be fundraising for this initiative at its 12th One Night in the Tropics event on Nov. 7.
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