MODOT is bugging Mo. (Jefferson City: university, live in, transportation)

[Versatile]

MoDOT News Release

MoDOT Uses Hungry Bugs to Combat Noxious Weeds

JEFFERSON CITY - They are tiny, tireless, hungry, and environmentally friendly - except to one invasive weed.

They're called seedhead weevils, and the Missouri departments of Transportation and Conservation, along with the University of Missouri - Extension, are using them to help control Missouri's newest noxious weed - spotted knapweed. The weevils, Larinus minutus and Larinus obtusus or "Larrys" as some researchers like to call them, are small, flying, dark brown or gray bugs with a long snout. They can spread throughout a knapweed patch in a few years.

"Knapweed infestations occur in poor soils along rock cuts and steep slopes, and the weed produces an herbicide within its roots that kills nearby plants," explained MoDOT Roadside Manager Chris Shulse.

Each plant can produce more than 1,000 seeds that remain alive in the soil for nearly 10 years. Those seeds are easily picked up by mowers in late summer and spread to new areas.

"Needless to say, this plant is one tough character to control," Shulse noted.

[lifelongMOgal]

Those root weevils have been released in both Kansas & Missouri since about 2009 to fight the spotted knapweed. Hopefully there will not be a bad outcome of unintended consequences as a result as has happened in the past with the Asian Ladybugs, parasitic wasps, and other alien parasites and weevils.