From the Tampa Tribune...
Plant Pests To Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine
By ANDRIY R. PAZUNIAK, The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 30, 2007
ODESSA - In the moist, quiet air of a Hillsborough County forest Friday, a small army of tiny warriors flew from their base and set out to save some of Florida's most cherished plants.
Their mission: penetrate deep into enemy territory and eat their way out.
A team of University of Florida researchers unleashed 56 parasitic flies into Lake Rogers Park on Friday to ward off the infestation of the Mexican bromeliad weevil, a type of beetle that has been wreaking havoc on the native bromeliad population of southern Florida since 1989.
Weevil larvae bury themselves in the bromeliads and eat the plants to death before they have a chance to flower and release their seeds, putting future plant generations at risk.
Researchers are hoping the flies will do the same to the weevils.
The plan is for the fly larvae to lodge in the weevil larvae and eat them alive, killing the weevils before they can kill the bromeliads.
'It's like that scene in the first 'Alien' movie,' Ronald Cave, a UF entomologist who led the research effort with his colleague Howard Frank, said after releasing the flies into the wild.
Results May Be Seen In Months
Cave said he hopes to see tangible results within a couple of months but conceded his team would be 'real lucky' if the flies act that quickly.
'They won't last much longer,' said Frank, staring up at a tree with dead bromeliads hanging from it.
First spotted in Fort Lauderdale in 1989, the weevil made its debut at Lake Rogers in May. Barely a month later, numerous patches of tree-hanging bromeliads have dried up and died throughout the park as a result of the weevil infestation.
In Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, approximately 80 percent of the bromeliad population has been wiped out since the weevils first appeared, said Teresa Cooper, a UF graduate student working with Cave and Frank on the project.
The team hopes to unleash more flies in other weevil-infested trouble spots in coming weeks, including Broward, Palm Beach and Collier counties. The team must wait for permits to be approved.
The introduction of an insect into the ecological system does not concern researchers, Cave said, because the flies feast solely on the beetle's larvae.
'Our research indicates it will not attack any other insects, any other animals, and will not attack plants,' Cave said.
Cave discovered the fly species in the mountain forests of Honduras in 1993 and named it after his colleague, Frank. The official name of the fly is 'Lixadmontia Franki.'
'He didn't think it'd be a good idea to name it after his wife,' Frank said.
Cave and Frank brought the species to Florida and worked to create new generations at the UF Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory in Fort Pierce.
Progress To Be Checked In 6 Weeks
Friday's release was the first of an organism reared at the facility, which opened in 2004.
Though elimination of the weevil would be ideal, Frank said the team is trying to remain realistic.
'We just hope to reduce the population so it's no longer a significant ecological pest,' Frank said.
Cooper will return to the Lake Rogers site in six weeks to check on the flies' progress.
Evil Weevil Update
