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Natural Weed Control For Bridal Creeper Menace

Natural control agents to combat the weed Bridal Creeper will be released at selected Parks Victoria sites across the Bairnsdale region on Wednesday June 25.

By Department of Primary Industries - 16th June 2003 - Back to News

Bridal Creeper was once popular with florists for use in bridal bouquets and hanging baskets, but like many other ornamental plants, it has ‘gone bush’ and invaded large areas of Victoria’s native vegetation.

As it spreads, the Bridal Creeper forms extremely dense foliage that smothers native vegetation and forms huge tuber mats under the soil surface that can prevent anything else from growing

Staff from Parks Victoria and the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will release the two control agents: Bridal Creeper leafhoppers and Bridal Creeper rust fungus at nine Parks Victoria sites in the region.

The leafhoppers and rust fungus are both natural enemies of Bridal Creeper in South Africa, where the plant is native. They were first introduced to the region in 2000 and 2001 respectively and since then, have become preferred options for the biological control of Bridal Creeper in many areas.

DPI Project Officer Sarah Holland Clift said that Bridal Creeper is already a massive problem in the region and has a huge potential for further spread.

"These natural control agents are a great way to address this problem as they are specific to the Bridal Creeper and so will not affect any of our native Australian or economically important plant species,"

Ms Holland Clift said that although they are only 2.5mm long, the leafhoppers can multiply quickly and help suppress the spread of the weed by consuming the cell content in the leaves, causing the leaves to drop. Similarly, the rust fungus can produce millions of spores that attach to the Bridal Creeper leaves and divert important nutrients away from the plant.

However, biological control will not eradicate the weed and other control methods would need to be used in conjunction with this, such as spraying.

"Parks Victoria have adopted an excellent control strategy for Bridal Creeper by combining chemical and biological control in an integrated weed management strategy", Ms Holland Clift said.

Anything that helps us in restricting the spread of such an aggressive weed is extremely welcome",

Later in July, community groups will also have an opportunity to collect leafhoppers from a site where they were released 3 years ago and redistribute them to other local bridal creeper infestations.

For further information on the Bridal Creeper biological control program, please contact Sarah Holland Clift at Department of Primary Industries, Frankston, on (03) 9785 0188.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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