Beetles offer effective weed control, but native vegetation hard to re-establish
Friday, November 5, 2010 - 14:30
in Biology & Nature
With the help of the weed-eating flea beetle, researchers significantly reduced infestations of a non-native plant, leafy spurge, on Montana rangeland. The good news is that this biological method of weed control worked effectively over the course of a 9-year study. The bad news is that rather than native plants returning to flourish in the absence of leafy spurge, other non-native species became dominant in its place.