A Ram Pasture Showdown: The Beetle Vs The Purple Horde

By John Voket

A pretty and popular wildflower that has been classified as an invasive plant species is beginning to eclipse the once vibrant variety of wildflowers that populate Newtown’s parks and vast expanses of swampy open space. Until a few years ago, the rapidly expanding population of invasive purple loosestrife multiplied unchecked, according to Newtown resident and Connecticut Master Gardener Lisa Pecunia.

As a result of Ms Pecunia’s recent community service project, part of her final qualifications for the master gardener’s certification, she is ready to help town landowners, park, and highway officials control the overpopulation of purple loosestrife in town without completely eradicating the popular plant.

So, ladies and gentlemen, meet the beetles!

Ms Pecunia has already experienced strategic success using a particular species of beetle, which has proved to be the only nonchemical means of controlling purple loosestrife. And since the majority of these plants successfully root in wetland areas, in most cases, chemical herbicides are out of the question, she said.

“The plant came to America in the late 1800s from Europe in packing materials, and by travelers who thought the flower was very attractive,” Ms Pecunia said in a recent interview. “The problem is each plant can naturally generate more than a quarter-million seeds every year, so if you start with one or two, within a few years they’ve multiplied out of control.”

Purple loosestrife is most prolific in sunny, watery conditions, she said, so the seeds take hold in many of Newtown’s expansive swampy fields in springtime and end up pushing out most or all of the other native species by the time it begins blooming in midsummer.

One of the most evident examples of the invasion is on Newtown’s Ram Pasture near the intersection of Routes 25 and 302. What used to be a blanket of colorful wildflowers has become an almost uniform stretch of the small purple flower, mixing with the equally hearty goldenrod.

“It’s basically taking over areas where there used to be a diversity of native species,” she said. “It’s very aggressive and very competitive.”

Ms Pecunia worries that without the integration of beetle control measures, many areas in Newtown will become exclusively populated by the loosestrife. She became familiar with the beetle project about a year and a half ago as she worked toward completing her master gardener certification, and participated in raising and releasing the loosestrife-hungry insects in Southbury.

“We reared several thousand beetles taken from a project location in Southbury and bred them into purple loosestrife plants, which we then integrated in an area of Danbury where an entire pond was overtaken by purple loosestrife,” she said. “The beetles get released, start eating, go into the ground and [reproduce], and return in greater numbers each year in direct relationship with the amount of purple loosestrife in any given area.”

Greg Waters, a horticulturist with the National Parks Service at Weir Farm, has also seen the benefits of controlled purple loosestrife management through a beetle program.

“I’ve been monitoring a site on the Norwalk River for five years and in the past two years, the beetles have made a tremendous difference,” he told The Bee Tuesday. “Here we had an example of that plant compromising an ecosystem, and now there are very few flowers left to spread the seeds.”

Both Mr Waters and Ms Pecunia agree that the rampant, unchecked spread of the loosestrife can do as much harm by spreading seeds as by taking over native flower fields.

“It’s not a good practice to let it go,” Mr Waters said. “The wind and water can carry those seeds for miles, and once they get hold, they quickly begin changing the characteristic of wetlands where they begin to grow.”

He said in a matter of two or three seasons the purple loosestrife can turn a wetland into a wet meadow and then into a meadow. Ms Pecunia said that besides the evidence of this already presented at the Ram Pasture, she has seen areas of the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook where the actual watercourse has been altered as the loosestrife has pushed further down the riverbanks.

That is why Ms Pecunia believes now is the time for Newtown to take a stand against the loosestrife invasion. In order for the town’s representatives in the Highway Department and Parks and Recreation Department, and other service clubs, schools, or citizen volunteers, to become acclimated to the beetle raising, distribution, and monitoring cycle, the process to gear up for next year should begin soon.

The State of Connecticut’s website devoted to the beetle integration program for purple loosestrife — www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/general/biocntrl/homebeetles.htm — suggests the physical preparations for a community or service group program begin in February. But a consensus of departmental or private authorizations to conduct the beetle control projects, as well as the necessary authorization and release forms, should be secured before the town or any representatives begin obtaining supplies.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said he would welcome the opportunity to speak with any person or service group interested in targeting stretches of the invasive plants in Newtown.

For more information on controlling purple loosestrife in your neighborhood or on your property, visit the UConn Extension Service Integrated Pest Management site on the web at www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/ipmbio.htm.

Mr Waters is scheduled to give a talk on invasive plant species September 27 at 7:30 pm in the Brookfield Community Center. For information call 775-9644.

Ms Pecunia can be reached via email at: lisa@egardenescapes.com, The Fairfield County UConn Extension Center is at 67 Stony Hill Road, Bethel, CT 06801-3056; 207-8440