BoatU.S. - April/May 2012

plant hoppers are reproducing as expected in the wild, adding about one additional generation per month.

“Water hyacinth is a serious problem not just for agriculture and our state’s water supply, but for anyone who appreciates the natural beauty and recreational value of our waterways,” CDFA Secretary Karen Ross said when announcing the project. “CDFA’s new biocontrol project will help reduce the impacts of this invasive weed in the Delta.” The hot summer didn’t appear to set the plant hoppers back, but the winter months could. Plant hoppers feed on water hyacinth by sucking the plant’s juices from its leaves, much like aphids destroy rosebushes. If enough plant hoppers feed on the same leaf, it wilts and dies. The CDFA hopes that the plant hopper colonies will prove hardy enough to survive on their own. If they prove viable, a larger-scale project to reduce water hyacinth would be launched.

Minnesota DNR has invested in mobile boat-decontamination trailers which can heat 400 gallons of water to 160 degrees, and capture that water for recycling, thanks to the large black pad under the trailer.

A CAUTIONARY TALE
Biological agents that are pest-specific such
as the water hyacinth plant hopper and
the toxic bacteria in Zequanox are the holy
grail in invasive-species management. When
less specific natural agents are introduced,
things can go awry. In 2005, Lake Conroe
in Texas was again facing an invasion of
hydrilla, another nuisance water plant that
grows in mats that blanket the surface, pre-
venting sunlight (and boats) from passing.
Hydrilla covered more than 9,000 acres of
Lake Conroe in the late ‘70s, at one point
completely encircling the shoreline, leading
the Lake Conroe Association to fight back.
Expensive herbicide treatments seemingly
did little, so the association hit upon the
plan of introducing the white Amur, a grass
carp species, into the lake to eat the hydrilla.
The fish ate the hydrilla and later died off. It
worked well enough that they reenacted the
plan again just a few years ago. After raising
more than $500,000 to purchase and stock
100,000 triploid white Amur (which can’t
reproduce), things seemed to be on track.
The voracious plant-eating fish reduced the
hydrilla population by 99 percent, leaving

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