Take Part has a straightforward solution for the $137 billion we spend on combating invasive species that threaten our ecosystem: Eat them. Why? Well, the way the sociopolitically minded website reasons, “Humans are sometimes the only available predator that can potentially eradicate plants and animals brought in from other countries.”

SEAFOOD / MEAT

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• Asian Clams. From southern Asia, these clams are “damaging work in the waters of the West coast.” Corbicula fluminea is a species of freshwater clam, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Cyrenidae.  This species is often confused with Corbicula fluminalis.This species is of originally mainly Asian origin and thus it is often commonly called Asian clam or Asiatic clam. In the aquarium and koi pond trade, it is often called golden clam or golden freshwater clam. In Southeast Asia, it is known as the prosperity clam or good luck clam.This species has been introduced into many parts of the world, including North America and Europe.Right after reaching maturity, these clams produce eggs, followed by sperm. Even later, they produce eggs and sperm simultaneously. They can self-fertilize, and release up to 2,000 juveniles per day, and more than 100,000 in a lifetime. Juveniles are only 1 mm long when discharged, and take one to four years to reach maturity. At this time, they are about 1 cm long. Adults can reach a length of about 5 cm.The outside of the shell is normally yellow-green with concentric rings. The color can flake, leaving white spots. The shells are lightly purple on the inside.They feed primarily on phytoplankton (algae), which they filter from the sandy or muddy bottoms of streams, lakes, or canals. According to the United States Geological Survey,C. fluminea is likely to continue to expand its North American range until it reaches its lower temperature tolerance.The primary economic and social impact of the invasion of C. fluminea has been billions of dollars in costs associated with clogged water intake pipes of power plants, among others. Ecologically, C. fluminea contributes to declines and replacement of highly vulnerable, already threatened native clams. 

• Chinese Mitten Crabs. These “Chinese mitten crabs yield large amounts of meat, which would be perfect in crab and avocado nachos or Shanghai pork-and-crab meatballs.” This species has been spread rapidly from Asia (China and Korea) to North America and Europe, raising concerns that it competes with local species, and its burrowing nature damages embankments and clogs drainage systems. The crabs can make significant inland migrations. It was reported in 1995 that residents of Greenwichsaw Chinese mitten crabs coming out of the River Thames, and in 2014 one was found in the Clyde, in Scotland. The crabs have also been known to take up residence in swimming pools. In some places the crabs have been found hundreds of miles from the sea. There is concern in areas with a substantial native crab fishery, such as the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and the Hudson River in New York (both locations where the crabs were first spotted in 2005), as the impact of the invasion by this species on the native population is unknown.]It is generally illegal to import, transport, or possess live Chinese mitten crabs in the United States as accidental release or escape risks spreading these crabs to uninfested waters. In addition, some states may have their own restrictions on possession of mitten crabs. California allows fishing for mitten crabs with some 

• Burbot. This cold-water fish was the target of a 2011 event organized to get rid off the species. One suggested alternative is to eat it as fish and chips.With an appearance like a cross between a catfish and an eel, the burbot has a serpent-like body, but it is easily distinguished by a single barbel on the chin.The body is elongated and laterally compressed, with a flattened head and single tube-like projection for each nostril. The mouth is wide, with both upper and lower jaws consisting of many small teeth. Burbot have two soft dorsal fins; the first being low and short, the second being much longer. The anal fin is low and almost as long as the dorsal fin. Thecaudal fin is rounded, the pectoral fins are fan-shaped, and pelvic fins are narrow with an elongated second fin ray. Having such small fins relative to body size indicates abenthic lifestyle with low swimming endurance, unable to withstand strong currents. The circular or cycloid scales are very small, making it difficult to accurately age, and thus even more challenging to manage.

• Lionfish. “Grilled lionfish is an excellent filling for tacos, or you can marinate the raw fish in lime juice for a tangy ceviche.” According to a study that involved the dissection of over 1,400 lionfish stomachs from Bahamian to North Carolinian waters, Pterois fish prey mostly on small fish, invertebrates, and mollusks in large amounts, with some specimens’ stomachs containing up to six different species of prey.The amount of prey in lionfish stomachs over the course of the day suggests lionfish feed most actively from 7:00–11:00 am, with decreased feeding throughout the afternoon. Lionfish are skilled hunters, using specialized bilateral swim bladder muscles to provide exquisite control of location in the water column, allowing the fish to alter its center of gravity to better attack prey. The lionfish then spreads its largepectoral fins and swallows its prey in a single motion.They blow jets of water while approaching prey, apparently to disorient them. (In general, when smaller fish escapes from a possible danger, they always do so opposite to current)

• Asian carp. The Bowfishing Association of Illinois has a recipe for Smoked Asian Carp that can be prepared two ways — savory or sweet. You’ll have to scroll half way down the page to find the specific recipes.The species of heavy-bodied cyprinid fishes are collectively known in the United States as Asian carp. Cyprinids from the Indian subcontinent, for example, catla (Catla catla) and mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus) are not included in this classification, and are known collectively as "Indian carp".Nine Asian carp have been substantially introduced outside of their native ranges:

• Bullfrog, Frog legs are considered a treat. I’m not so sure I’d want to give them a try, but garlic makes everything better so maybe this recipe for Garlic Frogs Legs from Food.com might make them seem more palatable.To establish social dominance within choruses, bullfrogs demonstrate various forms of aggression, especially through visual displays. Posture is a key factor in establishing social position and threatening challengers. Territorial males have inflated postures while nonterritorial males remain in the water with only their heads showing. For dominant (territorial) males, their elevated posture reveals their yellow-colored throats.When two dominant males encounter each other, they engage in a wrestling bout. The males have their venters clasped, each individual in an erect position rising to well above water level. The New Jersey study noted the males would approach each other to within a few centimeters and then tilt back their heads, displaying their brilliantly colored gular sacs. The gular is dichromatic in bullfrogs, with dominant and fitter males displaying yellow gulars. The New Jersey study also reported low posture with only the head exposed above the water surface was typical of subordinate, or nonterritorial males, and females. High posture was demonstrated by territorial males, which floated on the surface of the water with their lungs inflated, displaying their yellow gulars. Males optimize their reproductive fitness in a number of ways. Early arrival at the breeding site, prolonged breeding with continuous sexual activity throughout the season, ownership of a centrally located territory within the chorus, and successful movement between the dynamically changing choruses are all common ways for males to maintain dominant, or territorial, status within the chorus. Older males have greater success in all of these areas than younger males. Some of the males display a more inferior role, termed by many researchers as the silent male status. These silent males adopt a submissive posture, sit near resident males and make no attempt to displace them. The silent males do not attempt to intercept females but are waiting for the territories to become vacant.This has also been called the alternate or satellite male strategy.

• Rusty crayfish. The larger size and aggressive nature of Rusty crayfish that have been introduced to a body of water makes it harder for them to be preyed upon by native species of fish, which are not accustomed to crayfish fighting them back. Instead of running away like the native crayfish species do when they come in contact with a predator, the Rusty crayfish will take an attack stance with its claws raised above its head, which will generally scare away most predatory fish. Additionally, adult Rusty crayfish can be too large for some fish to consume. Because the Rusty crayfish are able to avoid predators fairly well, their population in these new aquatic ecosystems was able to grow extremely quickly and within twenty years the Rusty crayfish population had exploded and become an invasive species in the Northern United States and parts of Canada. Because these Rusty crayfish populations have basically taken over the natives species' habitats and forced them out of their homes, many populations of native crayfish have experienced drastic decline over the past fifty years and the Rusty crayfish has become the dominant species in much of the Midwestern United States.

• Signal crayfish. Members of this species are typically 6–9 centimetres (2.4–3.5 in) long, although sizes up to 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) are possible. They are bluish-brown to reddish-brown in colour with robust, large, smooth claws. They have a white to pale blue-green patch near the claw hinge, like the white flags that signalmen used for directing trains—hence the name.The life cycle of the signal crayfish is typical for the family Astacidae. Around 200–400 eggs are laid after mating in the autumn, and are carried under the female's tail until they are ready to hatch the following spring. The eggs hatch into juveniles, which pass through three moultsbefore leaving their mother. Sexual maturity is reached after two to three years, and the life span can be up to 20 years. The signal crayfish is an omnivore, with most of its dietary intake being detritus. From 1907, crayfish plague, an infectious disease caused by the water mould Aphanomyces astaci, damaged stocks of the native European crayfish Astacus astacus. Since the signal crayfish occupied a similar ecological niche in its native range, it was imported in the 1960s to Sweden and Finland to allow recreational and commercial crayfish capture. It was not realised at the time that the signal crayfish was a carrier of the crayfish plague. All American species carry the infection, but it is only lethal to individuals that are already stressed; to European species, the infection is rapidly fatal. The signal crayfish is now the most widespread alien crayfish in Europe, occurring in 25 countries, from Finland to Great Britain and from Spain to Greece. It was first introduced to Great Britain in 1976, and is now widespread across the British mainland as far north as the Moray Firth. It has also been observed on the Isle of Man, but not inIreland.

• Tilapia. Tilapia has been used as biological controls for certain aquatic plant problems. It has a preference for a floating aquatic plant, duckweed, but also consume some filamentous algae. In Kenyatilapia were introduced to control mosquitoes which were causing malaria, because they consume mosquito larvae, consequently reducing the numbers of adult female mosquitoes, the vector of the disease (Petr 2000). These benefits are, however, frequently outweighed by the negative aspects of tilapia as an invasive species. Tilapia are unable to survive in temperate climates because they require warm water. The pure strain of the blue tilapia, Oreochromis aureus, has the greatest cold tolerance and dies at 45 °F (7 °C), while all other species of tilapia will die at a range of 52 to 62 °F (11 to 17 °C). As a result, they cannot invade temperate habitats and disrupt native ecologies in temperate zones; however, they have spread widely beyond their points of introduction in many fresh and brackish tropical and subtropical habitats, often disrupting native species significantly. Because of this, tilapia are on the IUCN's 100 of the World's Worst Alien Invasive Species list. In the United States, tilapia are found in much of the south, especially Florida, Texas, as well as far North as Idaho where they survive in power plant discharge zones. Tilapia are also currently stocked in the Phoenix, Arizona canal system as an algae growth control measure. Many state fish and wildlife agencies in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and elsewhere consider them to be invasive species.

1. Feral pigs/wild boar. If you’re a skilled hunter and want to help thin out the invasive pig and boar population, you might as well make a meal out of your kill, right? Feral pigs are a growing problem in the U.S. and on the southern prairies in Canada. As of 2013, the estimated population of six million feral pigs causes billions of dollars in property damage every year in the U.S., both in wild and agricultural lands. Because pigs forage by rooting for their food under the ground with their snout and tusks, a sounder (group) of feral pigs can damage acres of planted fields in just a few nights. For commercial pig farmers, great concern exists that some of the hogs could be a vector for swine fever to return to the U.S., which has been extinct in America since 1978.

2. In the early 2000s, the range of feral pigs includes all of the U.S. south of the 36°N. The range begins in the mountains surrounding California and crosses over the mountains, continuing consistently much farther east towards the Louisiana bayous and forests, terminating in the entire Florida peninsula. In the East, the range expands northward to include most of the forested areas and swamps of the Southeast, and from there goes north along the Appalachian Mountains as far as upstate New York, with a growing presence in states bordering West Virginia and Kentucky. Texas has the largest estimated population of 2.6 million feral pigs existing in 253 of its 254 counties. Outside mainland U.S., Hawaii also has feral pigs introduced to Oahu soon after Captain Cook's discovery of Hawaii in 1778, where they prey on or eat endangered birds and plants. The population of feral pigs has increased from 2 million pigs ranging over 20 states in 1990, to triple that number 25 years later, ranging over 38 states with new territories expanding north into Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire. Some of these feral pigs have mixed with escaped Russian boar that have been introduced for hunters from the early 1990s.

3. Predators such as bobcats and coyotes may occasionally take feral piglets or weakened animals, but are not large enough to challenge a full-grown boar that can grow to three times their weight. In Florida, feral pigs make up a significant portion of the Florida panther's diet. Because feral pigs are omnivorous, their feeding behaviour disrupts the entire food-chain. Plants have difficulties regenerating from their wallowing as North American flora did not evolve to withstand the destruction caused by rooting pigs, unlike Europe or Asia.[citation needed] Feral pigs in the U.S. eat small animals such as wild turkey poults,toads, turtles and the eggs of reptiles and birds. This can deprive other wildlife that normally would prey upon these important food sources. In some case, other wildlife are out-competed by the feral pigs' higher reproductive rate; a sow can become pregnant as early as 6 months old and give birth to multiple litters of piglets yearly. In the autumn, other animals such as the American black bear, compete directly with feral pigs as both forage for tree mast (the fruit of forest trees).

4. In the U.S., the problems caused by feral pigs are exacerbated by the small number of species which prey on them. In North America, these large predators would include the gray wolf, cougar, jaguar, red wolf, black bear and the grizzly bear. Unfortunately, each keystone predator presents problems: the jaguar is extirpated from California and the Southwest. The grizzly, while native to most of the American West, is gone from the states that have large feral pig populations, namely Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico; and the species has a very slow reproductive rate. Wolf numbers are small and expected to remain so as they slowly repopulate their range; only one has thus far been recorded as inhabiting California in spite of thousands of square miles of good habitat. The cougar is present in most of the West, but is gone from the East, with no known populations east of Minnesota in the north, and very thin numbers east of Houston in the South. The black bear is both predator and competitor. Programs do exist to protect the weakened numbers of large predators in the US, but it is expected to take a very long time for these animals to naturally repopulate former habitat.[citation needed]

• Nutria. The official name comes off like some kind of vitamin drink, so Louisianans came up with another that sounds more fitting: swamp rats. Nutria don’t just look like rats with long tails and orange buck teeth, they breed like them. Vegetative damage caused by nutria has been documented in at least 11 Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) project sites in the Barataria-Terrebonne Basins. The estimate of 80,000 acres of marsh damaged was conservative because only the worse (most obvious) can be detected from aerial surveys. The number of acres being impacted was certainly higher. Since the introduction of the Coastwide Nutria Control Program in 2002, the number of impacted acres has dropped to 4,181 acres. Over grazing by nutria removes vegetation from the surface of the marsh, which results in the very fragile organic soils becoming exposed to erosion through tidal action. If damaged areas do not revegetate quickly, they will become open water as tidal scour removes soil and thus lowers elevation. Frequently, nutria grazing damages the plant's root systems, making recovery through vegetative regeneration very slow.

PLANT

• Garlic Mustard Plant. It has been around since the Gold Rush. It’s good salad material.

   

• Autumn-Olive/Autumnberry. It has 17 times more lycopene per ounce than a raw tomato.

• Prickly Lettuce. This plant, native to Egypt and Asia Minor, can taste bitter as the plant matures.

• Watercress. Another material to be used for salad fixings.

• Fennel. This anise-flavored herb/vegetable can be deployed in quite a few dishes, including stews and soups.

• Himalayan Blackberry. These berries grow wild in the Pacific Northwest and can be used in pies, jams, and tarts.

   

• Kudzu. I found several suggestions for kudzu on Grandpappy’s Basic Recipes. Both the leaves and the blossoms can be used to create teas, salads and even wine.

• Brassica rapa (aka turnip mustard or field mustard). The Selfsufficientish blog has information about this invasive plant species and a recipe for Simple Mashed Turnips.