It is not the most high-profile of environmental causes, but eradication of non-native plants gets some play in New Jersey ecology circles these days as a noxious weed is threatening to take over the Garden State's lower third.
With help of an imported Chinese beetle called Rhinoncomimus latipes, state agriculture officials are taking on Mile-a-minute, an appropriately named herbaceous nuisance that is literally strangling Christmas tree seedlings and other plants with economic value to the state.
This plant is a threat because it grows an astonishing six inches a day and spreads unchecked, first through railroad and power line easements, then along highways and into farm lands.
It's not quite as epic a struggle as locusts and Pharoahs, but the non-native weevils are loosed upon the non-native weed, pitting a Chinese bug against a Japanese import. Mile-a-minute was brought to nurseries from Japan sometime last century and, like Godzilla, it busted out to terrorize the local populace. Alright, so I exaggerate just a little.
The research station housing the weevils is the Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory, built in 1985 for biological pest control. It seems herbicides after Rachel Carson are as popular as kool aid after Jim Jones.
I met one of the young researchers at a gathering of environmentalists and was fascinated to learn that Chinese entomologists had collaborated insofar as identifying the species and where it might be gotten in the country of origin. I still don't know from which provinces the beetle hails from in China.
But it was a match made in heaven (or hell in the case of the plant): that is, the Chinese weevil thrives on Mile-a-minute and not a single other plant species in New Jersey. Once it devours all the noxious MAM in its habitat it effectively dies off.
No comments:
Post a Comment