Britain Uses Imported Bugs To Combat Invasive Plant Species For The First Time

A team at University of Leicester is using nature against itself for the first time in Europe . They are promise it “ biocontrol ” ; the team is bringing in sap - sucking insects from Japan to insure an invasive flora coinage called Knotweed .

The Knotweed is also originally from Japan , and it was first introduced in Britain in the 1850s , but since then , the plant has thrive a niggling too well . The research squad was charge with finding a way to reduce the incursive flora ’s bridgehead in Britain , and they square up on bringing in a natural piranha of the Knotweed from the plant ’s native Japan .

The footling plant life - feeder is called Aphalara itadori , and it works a lot like an aphid , sucking out life-sustaining juices from the plant and choking it with tons of offspring . The idea is that the itadori will not kill the Knotweed , but greatly reduce its spread and number .

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Of naturally , when a non - aboriginal specie takes over amazingly well , it ’s bad bringing in yet another non - aboriginal coinage to control it . But the squad is doing extensive research on the fundamental interaction between the insects and the Knotweed to verify there are no surprises in store for Britain ’s ecosystem .

This move by the British government also repeat a move by the Springfield governance in The Simpsons . In the episode“Bart The Mother,”a specie of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lizard fill over Springfield , but the city imports snakes to kill the lizards . When the snakes become a problem , the townsfolk plans brings in gorilla . The gorillas , they say , will not be a problem because winter will take maintenance of them . have ’s hope there are n’t Hydra - killing gorillas roll the British countryside by this sentence next twelvemonth .

First Ever utilize In Europe Of An Insect To Fight Invasive Plant Species [ viaScienceDaily ]

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