California plans to unleash fly to crush ivy invasion

[sue4e3]

Coastal Californians battling pervasive Cape ivy have been waiting years for a helpful fly with a regal name.

Now, Agriculture Department officials are finally getting ready to pull the trigger, turning the fly loose on the vine that has infested shady parts of the Pacific Coast. The fly deposits its eggs on the Cape ivy, causing a huge boil-like growth known as a gall to form on the plant's stem and stunt its growth.
For San Luis Obispo County resident David Chipping, it's about time.
"Invasion of both upland and riparian habitat by Cape ivy long ago reached crisis proportions in our county," Chipping told the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Chipping, a Los Osos resident and member of the California Native Plant Society's San Luis Obispo Chapter, this month added his voice to a others supporting a federal proposal to release of the fly, known as Parafreutreta regalis.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-california-unleash-ivy-invasion.html#jCp

[OnlinePoker]

1. And then what will have to be released to control the fly?

Bring in one non-native species to kill another non-native species. Nothing bad can happen there.

[Botany]

2. The fly might need cape ivy for its life cycle and once the cape ivy is gone ...

... the might have a very limited chance for survival..

[Cassiopeia]

6. There's only one small thing to worry about

Evolution.

[Botany]

7. Non native invasive species is a really difficult set of problems

But their control is critical for the supportive capacity of the planet. They really hurt
the ecological biodiversity on many different levels.

Right now I am working on a little bastard called lesser celandine. It is the devil.

[Cassiopeia]

8. I agree completely.

That's what would give me the greatest pause in introducing another non native to control a non native.

[Botany]

9. From what I read about the fly and the cape ivy this AM I don't think evolution and ....

.... escape sould not be a problem.

One of our big problems w/non native invasives is many of the standard products of
our nursery and landscape industry.

Burning Bush, privet, flowering pear, kousa dogwood (host to dogwood blight), english
ivy, wintercreeper euonymus, norway maple, rose of sharon, purple loosestrive, foxglove,
and barberry are real problems.

[NV Whino]

3. I think I've seen this show before. It's a rerun.

[Moral Compass]

4. My thoughts exactly...

[dembotoz]

5. do hope they are careful