Community Corner
UCONN Releases Weevils to Control Mile a Minute Vine
Donna R. Ellis from the University of Connecticut and Carole Cheah of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station visited Laurel Hill Road Thursday to release 1,500 weevils, a natural predator of the Mile A Minute Vine.
Ellis and Cheah, along with members of the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, were pleased to discover weevils were already attacking the vine along Laurel Hill Road. The vine is considered an invasive species, and researchers use the weevil to control it.
They suspect the weevils they found Thursday in Ridgefield came from Wilton, where the team released weevils in 2012 on the Mile a Minute Vine.
Cheah said the weevil program to control the Mile a Minute Vine really started in New Jersey, where they were first researched and then released them in 2004. She said today, when she talks to researchers in New Jersey, they find new infestations of the Mile a Minute Vine with weevils attacking it before researchers introduce weevils. The plant and its enemy already exist together, much like the situation they found Thursday on Laurel Hill Road.
Ellis said the weevils attacking the vine in Ridgefield were several generations old, because the young, black weevils were present, along with orange weevils, which are those that have been eating the vine. The researchers also found evidence that weevil larva had already gone through their life cycle on the plants.
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