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WSU prof, Metro Parks biologist team up to fight invasive plant

Purple loosestrife is pretty, but will eventually choke out other plant species.

Wright State Biology professor Jim Amon looks through the plant loosestrife in the Siebenthaler Fen in Greene County on Thursday, July 29, 2010. The plant is an invasive flowering plant that may be able to be contained with the use of European beetles.

Staff Photos by Alicia Fidler/Dayton Daily News Wright State Biology professor Jim Amon looks through the plant loosestrife in the Siebenthaler Fen in Greene County on Thursday, July 29, 2010. The plant is an invasive flowering plant that may be able to be contained with the use of European beetles.

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By Christopher Magan, Staff Writer Updated 11:29 PM Saturday, July 31, 2010

DAYTON – Miami Valley biologists are trying to use a European beetle to keep in check an invasive flower that threatens to choke out hundreds of other native plant species.

Michael Enright, Five Rivers Metro Parks conservation biologist and James Amon, Wright State University biology professor gathered Guracella beetles and their eggs from a Lake Erie wetland this spring and distributed them in two area wetlands to control purple loosestrife, a water-loving flowering plant.

“Basically, it swamps out everything else and becomes a monoculture,” said Amon, who has seen the flower invade the Beavercreek wetlands. “The beetles (up north) keep it under control.”

Amon and Enright said they realize people might wince at the idea of using a non-native beetle to control an invasive plant. Non-natives like the deliberately introduced kudzu and the accidentally introduced Emerald Ash Borer and gypsy moth have decimated the country’s forests.

But these beetles were deeply vetted for unexpected biological problems before originally being introduced into the U.S. in the early 1990s, Amon and Enright said.

“The testing process now is very different,” Enright said. “In the 1950s and 1960s a whole lot was let loose without understanding how it would interact with other species.”

The hope is the beetles will keep the loosestrife in check the same way they do in Europe, where both the bug and the plant are native. There isn’t believed to be a risk of the beetle turning to another food source if the loosestrife is decimated.

“If you kill off all the purple loosestrife the beetle would die,” Amon said.

Still, the biologists are facing an uphill battle. Loosestrife can be found in all the area’s wetlands and along rivers. A single plant can produce millions of seeds and some home and garden centers still sell the plant in their nurseries.

Beetles were introduced in the Beavercreek wetlands and near Riverscape Metro Park this summer. Amon and Enright are working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife to bring more beetles to the area next year.

“We hope they spread out on their own,” Enright said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2342 or cmagan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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