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Nature Done Wright
Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs
December 1, 2007
Good bugs and bad bugs
A short while back, I visited New Jersey’s beneficial bug lab in West Trenton, and it turned into a front-page story for The Record.
The state spends roughly a million dollars a year to grow bugs that attack invasive bugs (like the Mexican beetles who have just laid eggs above).
The lab is also working on bugs that go after the invasive weeds that are choking our open spaces — like mile-a-minute weed (pictured below), garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed, which has been attacking the Celery Farm.
The bug to kill the rapidly-spreading mile-a-minute weed is just becoming available now, and I think the garlic mustard bane may be in the pipeline as well. The knotweed bug may still be a decade away.
By the way, the lab raised the European beetles who conquered the Celery Farm’s purple loosestrife.
3 comments
-
I cant wait to try making some Garlic Mustard Pesto! Google has lots of recipes.
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Web%20Recipes/GarlicMustardPesto.html
I will sleep better knowing there are people thinking about solutions other than chemicals.
Thanks
TNic -
I think that farmers can take advantage of the beneficial bug program, as well as towns and groups that manage open spaces.
The Celery Farm went through the lab, although I am not sure whether it was Allendale of Fyke Nature Assoc iation. I believe they paid something three cents per bug…
You might contact the lab for more information…
Try googling Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect to learn more… -
We thought the article in the Record was very interesting. Great job! I assume all the insects are regulated by the state for public land and are not availble to the public at this time, correct? I think it is fasinating that the Celery Farm used the European beetle to get rid of the invasive purple loosestrife. Can you share with us how the Celery Farm went about doing this? Did you go through the beneficial bug lab? This kind of practical information is invaluable for NJ’s future and we’d like to hear more.
-D
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3 comments
TNic
I cant wait to try making some Garlic Mustard Pesto! Google has lots of recipes.
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Web%20Recipes/GarlicMustardPesto.html
I will sleep better knowing there are people thinking about solutions other than chemicals.
Thanks
TNic
jim wright
I think that farmers can take advantage of the beneficial bug program, as well as towns and groups that manage open spaces.
The Celery Farm went through the lab, although I am not sure whether it was Allendale of Fyke Nature Assoc iation. I believe they paid something three cents per bug…
You might contact the lab for more information…
Try googling Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect to learn more…
Diana & Jeff
We thought the article in the Record was very interesting. Great job! I assume all the insects are regulated by the state for public land and are not availble to the public at this time, correct? I think it is fasinating that the Celery Farm used the European beetle to get rid of the invasive purple loosestrife. Can you share with us how the Celery Farm went about doing this? Did you go through the beneficial bug lab? This kind of practical information is invaluable for NJ’s future and we’d like to hear more.
-D