GHEENS, LOUISIANA -
On Bayou Des Allemands, Mark Frazier recalls growing up along the waterway.
"This was all clear. We used to swim."
It's not all clear anymore. A plant called giant salvinia lines the banks, several feet wide at some points. The plants can kill fish, convince ducks to move elsewhere, and stop propellers in their wakes.
"If they don't do anything, it's going to block up the whole bayou," Frazier said Monday afternoon.
In Lafourche Parish, on the Golden Ranch Plantation in Gheens, a team of state and other biologists is working to defeat the salvinia with a weevil, the salvinia weevil. The bugs eat and kill the plants. At the plantation, a six acre pond is covered with dead giant salvinia and millions of the weevils.
"The weevils actually eat the terminal bud, and the plant dies after that," said biologist and plantation worker Wendell Lorio.
Lorio is leading an effort to transplant the weevils from the pond where they've multiplied for two years to rivers, lakes, bayous and canals across the state where the giant salvinia are becoming a problem. He believes there are enough of the bugs to fill orders through August or September. While it will take time to see the results, Lorio believes the biologists may have found a cure for the problem.
"Well, we think we do. It's not going to happen overnight. But it's going to take several years." Lorio said.
The state is spending nearly $8 million on the project.
"This was all clear. We used to swim."
It's not all clear anymore. A plant called giant salvinia lines the banks, several feet wide at some points. The plants can kill fish, convince ducks to move elsewhere, and stop propellers in their wakes.
"If they don't do anything, it's going to block up the whole bayou," Frazier said Monday afternoon.
In Lafourche Parish, on the Golden Ranch Plantation in Gheens, a team of state and other biologists is working to defeat the salvinia with a weevil, the salvinia weevil. The bugs eat and kill the plants. At the plantation, a six acre pond is covered with dead giant salvinia and millions of the weevils.
"The weevils actually eat the terminal bud, and the plant dies after that," said biologist and plantation worker Wendell Lorio.
Lorio is leading an effort to transplant the weevils from the pond where they've multiplied for two years to rivers, lakes, bayous and canals across the state where the giant salvinia are becoming a problem. He believes there are enough of the bugs to fill orders through August or September. While it will take time to see the results, Lorio believes the biologists may have found a cure for the problem.
"Well, we think we do. It's not going to happen overnight. But it's going to take several years." Lorio said.
The state is spending nearly $8 million on the project.
