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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Seagrove who wrote (1059924)	3/12/2018 12:57:16 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1576320

By fail, you mean 99% successful? Beetles as control The use of beetles is the most cost-effective way to control this weed. Once the insects become established, they are self-sustaining. According to Anderson, 19 species of leafy spurge beetles were brought into Canada for bio-control purposes, with the first releases over 30 years ago. “Most of these 19 species were released at one site south of Weyburn on six quarters of pasture land covered with leafy spurge. Over the years, some of these species have died off, but we believe we have three species remaining,” he says. These three species are the brown dot spurge beetle Aphthona cyparrissiae and the black dot spurge beetle Aphthona nigriscutis, both of which require full sun and sandy soil conditions to thrive. The black spurge beetle Aphthona lacertosa prefers clay/loam soils and will tolerate some shade. The beetles are small — about the size of a match head — and have similar life cycles. The adults emerge from the soil in late June or early July and feed on the uppermost parts of the spurge plants. They mate and the females will lay their eggs beneath the soil surface at the base of the plants. Females, depending on the species, can lay up to 300 eggs in a season. When the larvae hatch, they begin feeding on the small roots and continue on the larger roots. This weakens the plant by impairing its ability to take up moisture and nutrients. Plants become more susceptible to diseases. The larvae become dormant in the soil over winter. In the spring the larvae resume feeding for about three weeks before they pupate and emerge as adults. “With the use of beetles, we know it takes several years before you see a noticeable reduction of spurge,” notes Anderson. “But over the last five to 10 years of the 30 years since the beetles were first released at the Weyburn site, there is very little spurge left on the six quarters that were once completely covered. In fact the beetle population has dropped down to the point now where we won’t be using it as a bug collection site this year. In its heyday, we could collect 2,500 beetles in 45 minutes. We’ll be collecting them at a site west of Moose Jaw this year.” grainews.ca