Milfoil weevils may be more helpful to local habitats and humanity than anyone realizes. This weevil may prove it usefulness in eating milfoil and reestablishing the health of an ecosystem while causing no harm to people.
Two types of milfoil exist in the United States. Eurasian Milfoil is invasive and non-indigenous and the other is simple indigenous. The native species places no threat but the Eurasian strain is very damaging. Eurasian Milfoil is the reason the milfoil weevil is so significant.
Eurasian milfoil (from this point forward all milfoil will be believed Eurasian milfoil unless otherwise noted) was most in all likelihood introduced to the United States sometime between the late 1800’s to 1940’s as either a stowaway on a Boats ballast or discarded shipping material. Because of its ability to travel on boat anchors, bottoms, and propellers it spread widely, bringing with it drastic ecological shifts and additional problems for humanity. Luckily this can spread the milfoil weevil as well.
Milfoil spreads rapidly, which results in less growth for indigenous plants, less food for some creatures and less living habitat for small marine creatures. Milfoil mats reduce the oxygen in the water, which can endanger fish and cause unhealthy algae growth.
The milfoil is more annoying for humans than harmful because it can lose weight the amount of water available for yachting, fishing, bathing and waterskiing. For communities, the dense mats can clog water intakes or overflows, causing water shortages in some places and flooding in others. Milfoil mats can even cause dam generators to foul or break resulting in lower power production.
The milfoil weevil may well be the answer to this plant epidemic. Eurasia milfoil is a favorite of the milfoil weevil rather than the indigenous kind; this results in the invasive species being step by step destroyed and indigenous plants slowly returning to their natural place. With a high breeding rate and a taste for milfoil, the milfoil weevil and a smart and safe way to remove the unwanted milfoil. The weevils are a clear solution to the milfoil problem, peculiarly considering the rate at which the flora spreads.
Milfoil spread when a little portion is broken off, sinks to the bottom and then takes root, forming a new growth. Aquatic harvesting devices are not productive because they break the plant and pieces come off and replant themselves elsewhere. Vacuum dredging is only slightly more successful in that it catches little broken pieces, but it also causes a great disruption in the water and can strip the bottom of all floras.
With a taste for Eurasia milfoil rather than the native milfoil, the weevil eats the flora from the inside out, ultimately destroying the whole flora. Weevils have a short life, living no more than thirty days, so before the winter comes, three generations will live and die before they come ashore for the winter. Milfoil weevils do have wings, but no one has ever seen them fly so no on knows precisely how the come ashore for the wintertime. Once established in a habitat, the milfoil weevil will live even through the coldest Minnesota winters.
Milfoil Weevil as a Barrier to Invasive Milfoil
Posted: October 14th, 2009 under Uncategorized.