STORY LEAD:
Weevil May Help Fight Invasive Water Weed
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (510) 559-6070, mwood@asrr.arsusda.gov
July 1, 1999
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Sleek black weevils are being put to work in an east Texas pond, lake, and
reservoir to help stop the spread of a fast-growing water weed, Salvinia
molesta. If the weevils perform as well in the United States as they have in
countries such as Australia, South Africa and India, they might reduce the
need for chemical controls.
This week near Jasper, Texas, Agricultural Research Service scientists and
colleagues from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are freeing about
500 of the one-tenth-inch long weevils known as Cyrtobagous salviniae.
Earlier, they set loose about 350 weevils.
Salvinia molesta produces small, oval, green to yellow-green leaves that can
form dense mats that crowd out native plants and ruin conditions for fish
and wildlife. The mats can also interfere with flood control and irrigation
as well as with fishing, swimming, boating, and water skiing.
Native to South America, S. molesta poses a threat to waterways in
warm-weather areas of the U.S. Unchecked, it can quickly double its spread
in only a few days, according to Ted D. Center, who leads the ARS Aquatic
Weed Control Research Laboratory in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The weevil, also native to South America, showed up in Florida several
decades ago. It is thought to have a key role in keeping another Salvinia
species, S. minima, in check in Florida.
The ARS researchers in Ft. Lauderdale collected the weevils in Florida and
are releasing them in Texas with the permission of federal and state
regulatory authorities. Weevil adults and young attack primarily the new,
nitrogen-rich buds of the plant. The weevils can produce a new generation of
hungry young every 3 weeks.
ARS scientists and their Texas associates will monitor the weevils to
determine if they can adapt. Winter weather poses the biggest threat to the
newcomer insects in Texas. ARS is USDA's chief research agency.
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Scientific contact: Ted D. Center, ARS Aquatic Weed Control Research
Laboratory, 3205 College Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314; phone (954)
475-0541, ext. 103; fax (954) 476-9169, tcenter@ars.usda.gov
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