According to a study released on Thursday, two invasive species—the American bullfrog and the brown tree snake—cost the world an estimated $16 billion between 1986 and 2020 by producing issues including crop loss and power disruptions.
According to a study reported in Scientific Reports, the brown-and-green lithobates catesbeianus frog, which may weigh over 2 pounds (0.9 kilos), had the biggest impact in Europe.
According to researcher Ismael Soto, the brown tree snake, or boiga irregularis, has proliferated rapidly on Pacific islands like Guam and the Marianna Islands, where the species was introduced by American forces during World War II.
According to him, there have been moments when the snakes were so numerous that they caused power outages by slithering across electrical machinery.
According to Soto, a PhD candidate at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic and the study's principal investigator, this indicates the necessity of spending money to restrict the global trafficking of invasive species.
The figures, which mostly originated from estimations and extrapolations rather than empirical observations, were obtained by aggregating the expenses associated with invasive species as published in peer-reviewed literature or research regarded to have high reliability.