It cannot be eradicated with a simple single herbicide application or pulling of seedlings. Bachmann halted the spread over her stone fence with a herbicide spray and some pulling, but the larger patch next door will have to be eradicated with a small but mighty insect-- a weevil.
The larva of the weevil causes damage to the mile-a-minute weed by boring into the plant's stem, the report stated. These weevils have been released in New Jersey, first in Gloucester, Mercer and Salem counties and then farther north.
The state Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Industry has confirmed that the third and largest case in Sussex County of the mile-a-minute weed has been found covering an empty lot off Davis Road in Sparta.
"Mile-a-minute is exploding," said Mark Mayer, the state's supervising entomologist. "I expect to see a lot more of it up in Sussex County in the coming years."
Tina Bachmann, neighbor to that empty lot, noticed in September that a weed was crawling rather quickly up over her stone fence. When she touched it, the thorns, like those on a rose, pricked her hands.
She looked past the fence to the property for sale next door and saw something she never expected. From the trees to the forest floor, everything was covered in lumpy, winding vines with triangular leaves, bright blue berries and thorns.
Mayer and others worry about this weed, since as Bachmann saw firsthand, it climbs over houses, shrubs, trees, fences, forest floors, native plants and anything else in its path quickly. It uses the ability to attach to other plants to climb higher toward the sunlight.
"It starts as an annual plant in the spring, and by the end of the year it can be two stories high growing up over trees and houses," Mayer said. "It's a very nasty, invasive species. It can grow six inches a day under optimum conditions."
If not contained or destroyed, it out-competes and kills native species by blocking sunlight, especially in forested areas, roadsides, drainage ditches and in recreational areas, the Department of Agriculture's report stated. Thus, animals are left without a food source.
In New Jersey, hotspots, or areas where large numbers of mile-a-minute weed have popped up, are in Warren, Bergen, Union, Gloucester, Mercer and Hunterdon counties, Mayer said, adding that it has reached almost every county.
http://www.njherald.com/story/19814205/invasive-weed-shows-up-adjacent-to-sparta-home
The larva of the weevil causes damage to the mile-a-minute weed by boring into the plant's stem, the report stated. These weevils have been released in New Jersey, first in Gloucester, Mercer and Salem counties and then farther north.
The state Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Industry has confirmed that the third and largest case in Sussex County of the mile-a-minute weed has been found covering an empty lot off Davis Road in Sparta.
"Mile-a-minute is exploding," said Mark Mayer, the state's supervising entomologist. "I expect to see a lot more of it up in Sussex County in the coming years."
Tina Bachmann, neighbor to that empty lot, noticed in September that a weed was crawling rather quickly up over her stone fence. When she touched it, the thorns, like those on a rose, pricked her hands.
She looked past the fence to the property for sale next door and saw something she never expected. From the trees to the forest floor, everything was covered in lumpy, winding vines with triangular leaves, bright blue berries and thorns.
Mayer and others worry about this weed, since as Bachmann saw firsthand, it climbs over houses, shrubs, trees, fences, forest floors, native plants and anything else in its path quickly. It uses the ability to attach to other plants to climb higher toward the sunlight.
"It starts as an annual plant in the spring, and by the end of the year it can be two stories high growing up over trees and houses," Mayer said. "It's a very nasty, invasive species. It can grow six inches a day under optimum conditions."
If not contained or destroyed, it out-competes and kills native species by blocking sunlight, especially in forested areas, roadsides, drainage ditches and in recreational areas, the Department of Agriculture's report stated. Thus, animals are left without a food source.
In New Jersey, hotspots, or areas where large numbers of mile-a-minute weed have popped up, are in Warren, Bergen, Union, Gloucester, Mercer and Hunterdon counties, Mayer said, adding that it has reached almost every county.
http://www.njherald.com/story/19814205/invasive-weed-shows-up-adjacent-to-sparta-home
