[APWG] FW: Mile-A-Minute, Polygonum perfoliatum

[Bob Beyfuss]

Hi All
I am not familiar with the mile a minute vine eating weevil but here in NY 
a colleague of mine at Cornell University, Bernd Blossy in conjunction with 
our conservation department released purple loosestrife eating beetles as 
long as 16 years ago. I considered this bio control program a failure until 
this year. I am not sure why, but this year the purple loosestrife is 99% 
gone from literally thousands of acres of wetlands, roadsides and virtually 
everywhere it had become established within my county. It may take many 
years for such releases to work but this year the effect is almost 
astonishing.
I also am pleased to read that some people realize that broad spectrum 
herbicide applications to eradicate invasive plants may do far more harm 
than good by creating biological vacuums which will soon be quickly 
colonized by other invasive plants while inadvertently killing some of the 
plants one wants to preserve in the first place.  I think resource managers 
need to focus more on what is the desired outcome of any actions they take 
before they take them. Simply killing invasive plants for the sake of 
killing them (gratification?) is not necessarily, in my opinion, a desired 
outcome unless one can accurately predict what will replace them when they 
are gone. Assuming desirable native plants will automatically become 
reestablished once the exotic invaders are killed is a naive 
assumption.  Think before you spray!
Bob


  At 09:25 AM 7/17/2007, you wrote:
>
>
>----------
>From: Hough-Goldstein, Judith [mailto:jhough at udel.edu]
>Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:10 AM
>To: ialm at erols.com
>Cc: ma-eppc at yahoogroups.com; rreardon at fs.fed.us; elake at udel.edu
>Subject: Mle-a-minute biological control
>
>Mark,
>
>With respect to your comment "Bio-control is having mixed success 
>according to reports", I just want to remind everyone that this is only 
>the third year the mile-a-minute weevils from China have been in the 
>field, and in fact the majority of the releases so far were done in 2006, 
>with a few in 2005 and very few in 2004. Most consisted of relatively few 
>insects. It is normal for it to take some time before anything definitive 
>can be said about the effectiveness of an agent - at least 3 years, and 
>sometimes up to 10 years. The insects take time to build up in numbers, 
>and in some cases they also need time to adapt to regional conditions. So 
>far we know that the weevils can establish in a variety of habitats, 
>produce multiple generations during the season, and disperse readily to 
>new patches. As to impact on the plant populations, time will tell.
>
>Judy Hough-Goldstein
>_______________________________
>Judy Hough-Goldstein, Professor
>Dept. Entomology & Wildlife Ecology
>531 South College Ave.
>University of Delaware, Newark DE 19716-2160
><http://ag.udel.edu/enwc/research/biocontrol/index.htm>http://ag.udel.edu/enwc/research/biocontrol/index.htm
>
>
>----------
>From: Marc Imlay [mailto:ialm at erols.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 9:34 PM
>To: 'Aliens-L at indaba.iucn.org'
>Subject: Mile-A-Minute, Polygonum perfoliatum
>
>
>
>Three of us used garden rakes followed by hand pulling in Little Paint
>Branch Park, Beltsville MD on June 22, 2007 and removed 20% of
>the massive 25' by 100' patch of Mile-Minute in an open area
>in 2 hours. For example, the three volunteers in 15 minutes used
>the rakes very gently to remove about 80% of the Mile-a-Minute
>in a 20' x 20' patch about 50% invasive vine cover over 50% native
>cover including sensitive fern, asters, sycamore and sweet gum
>seedlings and Virginia creeper. The herbaceous natives were not
>damaged and it was then easy enough to hand pull the remainder in
>30 minutes. When we tried to pull very hard at another spot, native
>plants, including a virgin creeper, were damaged. Hand pulling alone
>would have been seen as hopeless and herbicides would have
>damaged the natives. Bio-control is having mixed success according
>to reports. Cheers.
>
>Marc Imlay
>Laura Malick
>Mike Breen
>
>Marc Imlay, PhD
>
>Conservation biologist, Anacostia Watershed Society
>(301-699-6204, 301-283-0808 301-442-5657 cell)
>Board member of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council,
>Hui o Laka at Kokee State Park, Hawaii
>Vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society,
>Chair of the Biodiversity and Habitat Stewardship Committee
>for the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>PCA's Alien Plant Working Group mailing list
>APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org
>
>Disclaimer
>Any requests, advice or opinions posted to this list reflect ONLY the 
>opinion of the individual posting the message.
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