Beetle Control
Success in South Windsor, Connecticut
as reported in
June 2008
to Donna R. Ellis, Extension Educator
University of Connecticut Department of Plant Science
Please see the emails below regarding long-awaited purple loosestrife biological control now underway in South Windsor. Galerucella beetles were first released beginning in 1999 at this location, which is adjacent to Hartford Audubon Society’s (HAS) Station 43, a 10-acre freshwater marsh that is one of the most important habitats for birds in the Hartford area. After monitoring this site for 9 years with little evidence that the beetles had ever established, we were very excited to find so much activity on the plants during our visit on June 4.
Regards,
Donna
Donna R. Ellis
Extension Educator and Co-Chair,
Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG)
University of Connecticut
Department of Plant Science
1390 Storrs Road, Unit 4163
Storrs, CT 06269-4163
Phone (860) 486-6448
FAX (860) 486-0534
Email:
donna.ellis@uconn.edu
UConn Integrated Pest Management:
www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm
CT Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG):
www.hort.uconn.edu/cipwg
----- Original Message -----
From:
Frank Haviland
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 6:53 PM
Cc: Ellis, Donna
Subject: GREAT NEWS at Station 43
GREAT NEWS!
The Purple Loosestrife that has been spreading over Station 43 is now under heavy attack by the offspring of the Galerucella Beetles we released there nine years ago in an experiment with UConn researchers.
With a natural enemy on-site now, it appears that the invasive loosestrife will no longer have free rein to spread unchecked. A few more years of monitoring will confirm this. It won't disappear, but it will now be controlled. It will take a few years to see a difference in the profusion of Purple Loosestrife, but it now looks like it will happen. The Rails and Bitterns will be very happy about this, too.
YAHOO!
We thought our experiment had failed, after initial success, but eventually no signs of damage. The beetles apparently just migrated to an adjacent area and are now returning in force. An inspection today by UConn researchers revealed lots of beetle activity and damage to plants. (See UConn report below)
Purple Loosestrife is not native to the USA, so it has no natural control agents here. It arrived by accident, but, as do other invasive plants, it has been growing explosively in our wetlands and crowding out the native species of plants that our native wildlife depend upon. Stopping this is essential to protect native habitat.
These Galerucella beetles are the natural control agents for loosestrife in its original habitat in northeast Europe and had to be imported. Much research was done by the USDA to ensure these beetles would do no harm to other plants.
When that was confirmed, Donna Ellis of the Department of Plant Science at UConn obtained research permits and live beetles to release at test sites. HAS was one of her early test volunteers and we obtained written permission from landowners adjacent to Station 43 for this experiment. Donna has had great success at many other sites since she began her experiments, but Station 43 seemed one of the failures, until today.
Beetles were first released in 1999, and again a few years later. HAS volunteers joined with UConn researchers to monitor results. Now the beetles are on the job.
See Donna's report below, just received today.
Frank
----- Original Message -----
From: Ellis, Donna
To:
Frank Haviland; Anthony Zemba
Sent:
Wednesday, June 04, 2008 5:22 PM
Subject:
beetle success at Station 43
Hello Frank and Anthony,
Nine long years after introducing the first Galerucella beetles in the wetland adjacent to Station 43, I am extremely pleased to report that purple loosestrife plants are under attack by hundreds of adult beetles! I stopped by the site this afternoon with my technician and was so excited to find adult beetles, feeding damage and egg clusters on most of the purple loosestrife plants we encountered. We also drove down Vibert Road and stopped to look at plants on the edges of some of the agricultural fields and nearby wetlands, and they were also full of beetles and had a lot of feeding damage.
I wanted to share this good news with you. I was always hopeful that our releases and years of monitoring weren’t in vain, and that the beetles had relocated from the release site to another, less flooded section of the wetland. It will be very interesting to see what transpires here in the next year or two.
Best Regards,
Donna
Donna R. Ellis
Extension Educator and Co-Chair,
Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG)
University of Connecticut
Department of Plant Science
1390 Storrs Road, Unit 4163
Storrs, CT 06269-4163
Phone (860) 486-6448
FAX (860) 486-0534
Email:
donna.ellis@uconn.edu
UConn Integrated Pest Management:
www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm
CT Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG):
www.hort.uconn.edu/cipwg
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