Is this the end of Knotweed?

[AB Editor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk.../sci/tech/8555378.stm

From the BBC:

A tiny Japanese insect that could help the fight against an aggressive superweed has been given the go-ahead for a trial release in England.

Since Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK it has rapidly spread, and the plant currently costs over £150m a year to control and clear.

The insect will initially be released in a handful of sites this spring.

This is the first time that biocontrol - the use of a "natural predator" to control a pest - has been used in the EU to fight a weed.

Other links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed
http://www.dailymail....rampant-knotweed.html
http://www.guardian.c...notweed-moth-predator

Is it dangerous to introduce pests such as these to our country - after all, what happens when there is an infestation of these?

Spare Ed

[another-view]

Crazy idea! Sure we'll have not knotweed but we will be overrun with these insects. So then we bring in Chinese needle snakes to eat the insects and have another outbreak. So next we bring in tigers to eat the needle snakes and so on....

[annie0000]

bring on the tigers - introduce them to inner cities to sort out the aggressive dogs and teenage tearaways!

Presumably they have already looked into how to deal with the pests they are introducing and that they don't carry disease - or is that too simple a concept.

[ummmm]

I think they have been experimenting with them for years.

[AB Editor]

Of course they have - I was hoping we could do something like this:

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed a fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a bird,
How absurd! to swallow a bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a cat,
Imagine that! to swallow a cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a dog,
What a hog! to swallow a dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die....

...and so on

[AB Editor]

On a serious note, CABI seem to be doing good work:

http://www.cabi.org/

I would personally like to see more attempts at "natural rebalancing" in the UK. It is certainly better than the chemical option.

Spare Ed

[milliezoe]

Could they bring in an insect that would eat MPs !!!!!!!

[carlton23]

The last paragraph in `The Mail` reports that the insect dies out after it has killed the weed, so what`s all the worry about?

[vulcan]

How accurate is the report in the Daily mail, it says clearing the knotweed costs the country 1.6 billion a year, BBC and Guardian state 150 million ? One heck of a difference.

[another-view]

"The last paragraph in `The Mail` reports that the insect dies out after it has killed the weed, so what`s all the worry about?"

I assume that sooner or later, the bug will realise that it dies from eating it and so why bother to kill itself?

[johnk]

I read about the research many years ago and they were looking for a parasite or bug to attack the plant at every stage of it's life cycle and not interact with any native wildlife or fauna. All this takes about 10 years and is as thorough as it can be before a trial in the field. All sorts of things have been released into the wild and survived even wallabies and parrots so the release of a well researched bug shouldn't worry anyone.