Fear No Weevil: Taking on the World’s Worst Weed

The reason they need weevil greenhouses is that the Brazilian weevils don't like Texan winters, and tend to die off over winter. If they mentioned it in this video I missed it.

YouTube description:

Salvinia is a tricky beast—it doubles in size every four-five days, has tentacles that loom underneath, and chokes up waterways, making it impossible for wildlife to grow or boats to sail. It’s a monster currently devastating Texas’s picturesque Caddo Lake. But, never fear, the weevil is here. Residents of Uncertain, Texas have taken it onto themselves to combat the invasive species with the help of a small Brazilian insect known as the weevil. By releasing these tiny soldiers onto the pervasive plant, they’re hoping to save the lake and their home.
newtboysays...

I hope this goes better than the introduction of nutria, which Texas did to combat other invasive water weeds. They are now a major problem, causing massive erosion problems and displacing naive species. It makes me wonder what problems these weevils are going to cause in 10 years....how many native plants will they eat to extinction?

oritteroposays...

Nutria don't die off every winter, so the weevils are likely to be less of a problem. There was actually a small scale trial before they built the weevil greenhouses, which didn't uncover any major issues with them.

See https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/creature-green-lagoon/ for many more details including the lack of frost tolerance:

Still, their campaign faced a significant obstacle: Caddo’s unfortunate latitude. The bug, like the plant it craves, is tropical. Problem is, weevils are felled by frost, while salvinia can stand slightly lower temperatures. This has proven to be Caddo’s curse, said Julie Nachtrieb, a biologist who raises and studies salvinia weevils at the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility, part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In places with mild or even nonexistent winters, weevils can be released a few times and then “you can walk away and let nature take its course,” she said. But at Caddo, the weevil populations must be reconstituted every spring, giving salvinia a running start.

newtboysaid:

I hope this goes better than the introduction of nutria, which Texas did to combat other invasive water weeds. They are now a major problem, causing massive erosion problems and displacing naive species. It makes me wonder what problems these weevils are going to cause in 10 years....how many native plants will they eat to extinction?

newtboysays...

The thing about unforseen consequences is they're unforseen. The probable yearly die off should limit any unwanted damages to a few seasons...assuming Texas continues to freeze every year, which is far from certain.
I really hope this solution works without issues, because they clearly need one. I just fear that these kinds of species introductions often end badly, and once done they are irreversible. It seems likely that in a few years a colony of frost tolerant weevils could evolve and quickly spread on birds.

oritteroposaid:

Nutria don't die off every winter, so the weevils are likely to be less of a problem. There was actually a small scale trial before they built the weevil greenhouses, which didn't uncover any major issues with them.

See https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/creature-green-lagoon/ for many more details including the lack of frost tolerance:

oritteroposays...

They've been trying to breed frost tolerant weevils, but so far without much success.

Really the weevils seem like much less of a problem than the weed they're helping to control. Not all introduced species go as badly wrong as nutria or cane toads (both of which would have benefited from some small scale studies in areas they couldn't escape).

I quite agree about unforseen consequences though!

newtboysaid:

The thing about unforseen consequences is they're unforseen. The probable yearly die off should limit any unwanted damages to a few seasons...assuming Texas continues to freeze every year, which is far from certain.
I really hope this solution works without issues, because they clearly need one. I just fear that these kinds of species introductions often end badly, and once done they are irreversible. It seems likely that in a few years a colony of frost tolerant weevils could evolve and quickly spread on birds.

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