Popular ornamental shrub could be hazardous to your health

Have you surrounded your home with tick hotels?

The Japanese Barberry, officially known as Berberis thunbergii, is a low cost, popular ornamental shrub commonly used in landscaping. It’s got everything a homeowner in CT is looking for: it is extremely shade tolerant; bears shiny green and red leaves on a thorny stem through a long growing season; is deer resistant; has pretty little yellow flowers in the Spring and small bright red egg-shaped berries from summer through winter. And it is cheap. What more could you want! How about 10X the chance of catching Lyme’s disease? Two nearby states New York and Massachusetts have had enough and have banned the sale, transport, distribution and propagation of this specific invasive partly because of its association with the Tick-borne diseases such as Lyme’s.

Why do ticks love this plant? Japanese Barberry shrubs are warmer and more humid than other plants, creating an environment where ticks can thrive and reproduce, increasing the risk of transmission of Lyme and other potentially dangerous infectious diseases, experts say. White-footed mice often hide in the barberry's dense and thorny branches. One infected mouse passing through can transfer bacteria to any number of ticks, which then pass the infection to their next host – your pet or your child! Research has shown 10 times the amount of ticks in an acre of forest with Japanese Barberry than a similar acre without it.

NBC CT has had a number of special reports last year about this that are quite informative and help explain the unique association with white-footed mice, ticks and Berberis thunbergii. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Popular-Shrub-Linked-to-Rising-Rates-of-Lyme-Disease-in-Ticks-447990093.html

Getting rid of the ornamentals you planted around your house is straight forward. Digging them down to the shallow roots is simple enough. Removing thickets of these thorny creatures from acres of forest is another thing all together. In rocky areas ,herbicides will help but flame weeders must be employed when clear cutting patches of infected forests.

Japanese Barberry is one of Connecticut’s most common invasive plant species. An Invasive species is defined by CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) as being “alien to the ecosystem that they have been introduced into and whose introduction causes harm to the environment or human health”.

CT takes invasive plant species so seriously, that they have legislative General Statutes creating an Invasive Plants Council determining the best measures to control these growing threats to our environment. In fact, the list of environmentally threatening plants is huge with over 80 plant species on a continuously expanding list.

CT residents can do their part in protecting the environment by not purchasing these popular ornamentals as part of their home landscaping.

There - you now know how to reduce your chance of getting tick bites. Do yourself and your community a favor – replace those bushes!

Photo credits: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, UCONN, Bugwood.org