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Chinese beetles enlisted to fight harmful tree in West

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2008 at 7:39 am

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Chinese beetles are being enlisted to fight an invasive tree species that is choking stream banks across the West. Officials looked to the ladybug-sized beetles when they looked for ways to combat tamarisk trees. The trees are Asian natives that have choked out native life on stream beds from Fountain Creek in Colorado to the Arkansas River basin.

In Asia, Chinese beetles have a taste for the leaves of the tamarisk, so agriculture and forestry officials are putting the beetles on tamarisk trees here. So far, scientists are happy with what they see. “It’s virtually free,” said Dan Bean, director of Colorado’s Palisade Insectary, where the beetles are bred. “Compared to going with bulldozers, it’s way cheaper. The beetles defoliate the trees, and they’re extremely specific.”

Colorado agriculture officials started using the beetle control this summer by releasing more than 26,000 of them near Pueblo. In Utah, land managers have been using the tamarisk beetle, or salt cedar leaf beetle, to control tamarisk trees since 2006.

Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.

October 6, 2008 · Filed Under Invasive Species, Southwest Water Issues

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