Friday, May 3, 2013

Biological Control

I was horrified to discover a few gorse (Ulex europaeus) plants on a different part of the Lal Lal block from where we have been trying to eliminate it for 10 years. However this is a welcome development:
Gorse spider mites (Tetranychus lintearius) on one branch.

The spider mites were first released in Victoria in 1998 to combat the spread of this horrible weed. (Details here.) I'm happy to see that the mites found this plant before I did!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hope they do only attack gorse, but do that well!

kaiteM said...

Gorse is so horrific, i hope the mites kill it quickly for you.