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Ask your doctor if Biological Control is right for you

Ask your doctor if Biological Control is right for you. Paul Pratt USDA-ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pathogens. Insects. Koalas. Melaleuca. Suitable environment. Australia. Pathogens. Insects. Florida. Melaleuca. Suitable environment.

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Ask your doctor if Biological Control is right for you

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  1. Ask your doctor ifBiological Control is right for you Paul Pratt USDA-ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory Fort Lauderdale, Florida

  2. Pathogens Insects Koalas Melaleuca Suitable environment Australia

  3. Pathogens Insects Florida Melaleuca Suitable environment

  4. Approach: The “pipeline”

  5. Melaleuca Weevil:Oxyops vitiosa

  6. Melaleuca Weevil:Oxyops vitiosa Feed on tender flush Eggs

  7. Melaleuca Weevil:Oxyops vitiosa Larvae

  8. Weevil damage

  9. Oxyops vitiosa • The first melaleuca bioagent introduced • Doesn’t thrive in permanently flooded sites • Spreading at a rate of 1 km/yr • Now released at >150 sites

  10. Egg Nymphs Adults Melaleuca Psyllid:Boreioglycaspis melaleucae

  11. Flocculence – white waxy byproduct Psyllid feeding damage

  12. Melaleuca psyllid • The second melaleuca bioagent introduced • Not influenced by water levels • >700,000 redistributed • Now released at >90 sites • Spreading at a rate of 7 km/yr

  13. Do I have bugs? • Biological control agents are everywhere

  14. Integrated Melaleuca Management How to use the biological control agents most effectively?

  15. reduces flowering • Reduces seed bank • Reduces recruitment after herbicide

  16. kills seedlings • Limits follow-up treatments

  17. Regional impacts

  18. reduces regrowth from cut stumps

  19. reduces regrowth from cut stumps Combining herbivory with occasional mowing caused 80% stump mortality

  20. stunts growth

  21. increases vulnerability • Reduced canopy • + • Repeated defoliations • = • Depleted starch reserves • Vulnerable to: • Mechanical controls • Drought • Frost (low temps)

  22. Integrated Melaleuca Management with Biological Control • Gives managers more time and flexibility • Reduces seed dispersal from neighboring lands • Reduced frequency of mechanical and chemical treatments • Longer time between initial and follow-up treatments • Allows managers to redirect limited funds to emerging weed problems

  23. Melaleuca rust – Puccinia cidii • Introduced accidentally through ornamental trade • Attacks Myrtaceous plants including melaleuca • Attacks young leaves

  24. Future biological control agents in the pipeline. . .

  25. Melaleuca Bud-Gall Fly Fergusonina turneri (Fergusoninidae)

  26. Melaleuca Gall Fly:

  27. Ferg Damage Galls Melaleuca Flower Buds gall flower

  28. Ferg Damage galls melaleuca shoot buds, too!!

  29. Melaleuca Stem-Gall Fly Lophodiplosis trifida (Cecidomyiidae)

  30. Cecid Damage Galls Melaleuca Stems

  31. Accelerating the Program:New Quarantine Facility for Screening Biological Control Agents

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