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Purple Weed vs. Beetle
hondo77 writes "How do you deal with an invasive, non-native plant? With a non-native beetle. This AP article talks about the non-native purple loosestrife weed, which arrived in North America in the late 1800s, and how it has been choking out indigenous native plans. After a study at Cornell, the Galerucella beetle was introduced in 2000 as part of a pilot program in Massachusetts to keep the weed under control. 'From what we know, there's no downside.'"
Then, we get snakes to eat the bugs, then gorillas to kill the snakes. When winter comes, the gorillas will just die off. It's perfect.
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
I know this from much experience.
I'm very uninterested in beetles, but the purple weed...
When I first saw the title, I figured this was a hippy-related article. :)
Woodstock announcer: "Don't eat the brown acid-- Oh and for God's sake, stay away from the purple weed!"
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
This was done back in the 1970s in the Pacific Northwest with Tansy Ragweed. Don't remember the moth specifically- but boy did we have a lot of those cute little yellow and black furry catepillars around when I was a kid.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
Skinner:
Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa:
But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner:
No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa:
But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner:
Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa:
But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner:
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
From what we know, there's no downside.
Um, I think the concern is about the part you don't know.
From what we know, there's no downside.
Do you hear that? It is all of Australia laughing.
The Parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus) came to India along with PL480 grain from the US in the mid 60s and created quite a mess. It was brought under control, somewhat, using an "imported" beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata. . That was not without its scare though. The momentum didn't sustain though and parthenium is making a slow comeback.
Ok, I'm pretty sure the Simpsons had an episode on this. This is a crisis waiting to happen.
[o]_O
The Cane Toad in Australia, and the Mongoose in Hawaii are both examples of massive ecological disasters. But there have been cases of successful non-native species to manage pests. The Asian Glass Carp has been used to manage Hydrilla infestations, they use sterile Carp, and their use has been successful, and there are other success stories out there. Now that we know about the seriousness of mistakes, there is a lot more careful testing before introducing non-native species to control problem invasive species.
Fighting the plant back is probably a good idea since it is a severe problem species. But this approach, while it might help for a while, would need a lot of maintenance unless the beetles hung around after they killed their host (in which case there are other problems). Each Purple Loostrife produces thousands of tiny seeds every year. These seeds lie dormant when buried in mud, and can survive buried for centuries, only to spring to life once the earth they were buried in is disturbed. Even if we got rid of every living plant in North America we would stil have centuries of fighting it to make it really go away.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
Growing up in Georiga, all I have to say is Kudzu.
http://www.cptr.ua.edu/kudzu/
http://www.jjanthony.com/kudzu/
Uh, where was the glass carp used successfully? Up 'round these parts, we're lookin' out for them carp. Yer supposed to kill 'em & take 'em straight to the DNR if you catch one. Here being Minnesota - they're heading upstream in the Mississippi.
I know grass carp have been used fairly sucessfully in Texas, Washington, Georgia, and Florida. I live in Austin - we had severe problems with Hydrilla that they were used to manage. They are picky eaters, so they are of limited use for controlling certain aquatic weeds, but they have not created ecological disasters when they didn't eat the weeds that they were released to control.
A quick Google for 'sterile grass carp', will yield a great deal more info.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
Introducing a non-native anything to an environment will eventually affect the environment. Look at N. America and the White Man.
Unfortunatly we are also home to some invasive alien species that threaten to kill and choke our natural life. One excellant example is the recent appearance of Coqui Frogs (read more) which came in on plants being imported for sales (go figure).
These little frogs (about the size of a nickel) are the loudest thing you have ever heard. At over 110 decibles per chirp there are no predators in Hawai'i for this creature and communities can grow as high as 20,000 to 40,000 per acre. You can imagine the din.
Furthermore, the coqui are eating insects that are normally eaten by our native creatures - which can upset the balance.
Hence my neighbor... coqui are moving into our neighborhood and the neighborhood association asked $44 from each person from which they would hire specialists to come and destroy the coqui (there are two effective methods, one a caffeine spray and the other a citric acid sollution spray - we have used the citric acid spray with great success).
My neighbor, a devout vegean is steadfast against it. Will not treat her coqui... "they have a right to live". Whereas, my response is... hey, man brought them in, man can bring them back out - to which she is very upset. (in the same token, she won't treat for termites, cockroaches, or rats either). Completely misses the point, as far as I can tell, that they are damaging OTHER species - nopers, THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE.
Ah well... I always maintained that eating vegetables was worse because they can't run and hide - and killing an entire field is akin to localized genocide.
Aloha nui loa
Two wrongs do make a right?
There have been quite a few cases of succesful Biological control, even in Australia. The introduced Prickly Pear cactus (Opuntia) used to cover quite a large range, but the Cactus moth (Cactoblastis cactorum) managed to almost wipe it out without harming endemic species.
P ages/B/Biocontrols.html
has some good reading
In Tasmania I worked with a guy a few years back who was assesing mites for control of gorse, which is all over the state thanks to dodgey farming practices. It's been underway for a few years now with no negetives.
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/Biology
Grass or glass? You've used both (consistantly) through a post each.
I currently work for Ducks Unlimited and pick purple loosestrife nearly 3 times a week. The stuff is horrible. If there are roots left it'll grow back and the flowers make a million seeds, ugh! I can say that purple loosestrife has ruined some of BC's (i'm in Vancouver) finest parks, and I have seen these beetles in action, they work to keep it in check, but they are no final solution..
Mike Jones-{ Genetic Engineer, in Training }-
Grass. I can be a poor typist.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
Each Purple Loostrife produces thousands of tiny seeds every year. These seeds lie dormant when buried in mud...
The article notes that the planners don't want the weed eradicated totally, because that would kill the beetles. They said "the ideal situation is a small population of plants supporting a small population of beetles" so that the beetles are still around to take care of dormant seeds when they finally sprout.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
What I don't get is, we have tons of purple loosestrife and tons of bored teenagers with no job; these are the idealistic little twerps that want to save the planet. Is it just my imagination or could all bored teenagers make a serious dent in the loosestrife crop. What do we have to do, tell them they can get high off it? Cross it with Cannabis indica? Saaaaay.... now there's an idea.
I remove all the loosestrife from my little 2 acre strip of the river here each year. It's a tough plant to dig out.
There are places near here where you can see acres of this purple crap. Sure it's kinda cute but it does kill everything else that was growing there before and of course all the things that relied on what grew there before go somewhere else and the whole ecosystem is buggered up. You see more of it each year.
Need Mercedes parts ?
i thought there was also some deal where the size of their red stripe (or black stripe?) dictates how shitty the winter is going to be (i live in Minnesota) the following year, although i am unsure if this claim is scientifically rigorous, or just a rumour.
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
I live in a state in the USA that suffers from Kudzu infestation. Kudzu is an ivy brought from Japan for some similarly ill-advised scheme. It's now covering the local vegetation, climbing buildings, choking trees, and changing the landscape. It's tenacious and almost impossible to eradicate.
A recent movie about the American Civil War had to be filmed in another country, because the actual southern locations are hidden under a blanket of kudzu.
Post a notice : " [Invasive organism(s)] is wiping out [native organism(s)]. Let's team up to [uproot or capture] this non-native [organism(s)]. This is an SOS to anyone who wants to preserve this area and stop the extinction of native species ; the more volunteers, the fewer the [invasive organisms] we will each have to [uproot/capture]. We are hoping that (X) people will volunteer to help remove this [organism]. You can join us via this [website, e-mail addy, phone #...]."
Wasn't this one of those comics that DC put out in the 70s based on characters they bought from bankrupt publishers?
When punk rock is outlawed, only outlaws will have punk rock.