In a world where you can order pretty much anything online, it is no wonder that our team comes across around 70 listings for banned invasive species every few months! This Invasive Species Week, I wanted to showcase the prevalence of harmful invasive species that can be found for sale online at the click of a button.
I work in the Non-Native Species Inspectorate, a small team of 17 situated in APHA’s National Wildlife Management Centre. As part of our day-to-day role, we go out on site visits to garden centres, pet shops, and zoos (basically anywhere that may have animals or plants on display or for sale) to check that there are no ‘banned’ species present.
We are looking for species listed on a piece of legislation called the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019. There are 66 species listed because of how invasive they are, about half are plants, half are animals. The species on this list, known as Species of Special Concern, are all restricted from sale and import, cultivation or breeding. View the list of Species of Special Concern.
Trawling the webWhen we are not at on-site visits, part of our role is to investigate and prevent the online sale of these species. To do this, we follow a structured (if somewhat repetitive) methodology that has proven to be highly effective. Each of us is assigned a list of target species, including any known synonyms, along with a set of websites to search for potential listings.
Common search terms for three invasive speciesWe then search through the top 50 results for each search term and check that none of these are listing our species of interest for sale. Each person has around 40 search terms, so this equates to about 2,000 website results trawled through per person!
With a repetitive task, I do, however, enjoy some of the more comical results that pop up every now and then…
Common issuesInvasive species are a huge concern for our native wildlife and ecosystems, and with over 2,000 non-native species having already been introduced to Britain, it is really worrying to see some of the ‘hard hitters’ being blatantly sold online.
Azolla, for example, when introduced to waterways can achieve 100% cover of the water’s surface as a carpet which can reach 30cm thick! This prevents photosynthesis and can cause the death of organisms in the water through lack of oxygen, disrupts movement through waterways (for animals and even things like boats), and can cause injuries or death for pets and livestock that mistake the carpet for solid ground. This species has been found advertised for sale 12 times since September 2025, and we have worked with the marketplaces to have these adverts removed.
It is not just banned plants that we find for sale online, we also come across the odd advert for some of our animal species too. Whilst selling any of our listed species is illegal, pet owners may rehome their listed animals for free. It is therefore often on rehoming sites that we find our species, but unfortunately people tend to list them and ask for money, which is not permitted!
One of the most common species we find on rehoming sites are the yellow-bellied and red-eared sliders, and I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that these are our least favourite species to deal with because of how often they crop up in unexpected places. Sadly, these animals are often dumped in local ponds and lakes as they become too big for people to care for. Here, they can spread disease to other wildlife and eat pretty much anything that is available, reducing other aquatic life locally.
In terms of online sales, a lot of listings for sliders include cryptic and unhelpful names (for example ‘YBS’ instead of yellow-bellied slider, or just ‘turtle’), as well as images which are blurry or at strange angles. All of this makes species identification quite difficult. We found 12 records of sliders for sale in our searches since September last year. We contact the sites to ask for these adverts to be removed, and make sure to inform the seller that they are able to rehome their slider for free should they wish to.
Under the radarWhilst we find a lot of obvious adverts for our banned species, we can struggle when people list their plants or animals under different names, or synonyms. Kew’s Plants of the World Online is a great free resource that we have used as a basis for some of the synonyms for plants that we search for; however, as with the ‘YBS’ issue I mentioned before, problems arise when sellers use misleading names or just the wrong name entirely.
Lagarosiphon major (curly waterweed) is a species that we come across a lot, and most of the time it is listed under something else. One of the most common is a defunct old trade name ‘Elodea crispa’, another is the use of a legal species that looks similar ‘Elodea densa’, and quite often it is just called ‘oxygen plant’.
Know what you growOnline marketplaces make shopping easier for a lot of people, but with such a broad spectrum of things sold it is really important to be able to regulate the platforms, and for us to have the relationships in place to ask for help when needed. Most of the marketplaces we search online have been very positive in their responses and have helped us greatly, some allowing us to set up online accounts for enforcement and regulation, and some helping by manually removing listings that we send across.
Whilst prevention of these species being sold is vital, we have found a lot of people are generally unaware of the legislation and the risks that invasive species pose. Often, people just do not know what they are selling (especially in the case of a lot of pond plants) or do not realise that they are invasive. Promoting the Be Plant Wise campaign alongside our enforcement has been a great way of informing people of these issues and how they can help, especially with the ‘Know What You Grow’ part of the campaign.
Invasive Species WeekThis Invasive Species Week (22-28th June), have a think about the plants you buy online. Do you know what species they are? Could they be invasive if planted in the wrong place?
You can help by familiarising yourself with our campaigns ‘Be Plant Wise’ and ‘Check Clean Dry’, check out our free awareness raising resources online, or even volunteer with a Local Action Group to help tackle some of the problem species.
Each day this week there will be a different theme with events happening online and locally. Head to the Non-Native Species Secretariat website to find out more!
Mon 22 June: Welcome to Invasive Species Week! Tue 23 June: Volunteering and recording Wed 24 June: Check Clean Dry Thu 25 June: Be Plant Wise Fri 26 June: Responsible pet ownership Sat 27 and Sun 28 June: Take part! Subscribe to our blogThroughout the year, we publish blogs which highlight the breadth of scientific work we are involved in as well as sharing our latest news and events we have attended.
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seen at 14:49, 24 June in APHA Science Blog.