The cinnabar moth continues to flourish in south King County despite having
greatly reduced the tansy ragwort. Suspicion is that it has found some
of the aster flowers to its liking. Not confirmed but recently heard. Source
was member of the King County Noxious Weed Control Board.

The loosestrife beatles/weavils have been tested in confined areas in
the east, in Minnesota and near Corvallis Or. To my knowledge all tests
are showing no significant problems to native plants. Same Weed Board
Member has gotten Purple Loosestrife listed as a class B designate in
Northeast King County and wants to get the biological controls there
before thestreams and lakes are infested like occurs in the Seattle Area.
(Sorry Seattlites, the state deems the urban area to far gone to list for
control - just keep pulling :) )

Steve Hallstrom steveh at u.washington.edu

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Roger Olstad:
> All you Montlake loosestrife pullers (and others) will be interested in
> this message about an alternate way to possibly control this noxious
> weed....I wonder what else they will eat when (if) the loosestrife runs
> out??? Haven't we been here before????

Yeah, cinnabar moth and tansy ragwort. It's worked really well, and as
far as I know it hasn't begun munching anything else. Moths and butterflies
are often very host-specific. This makes them great candidates for
introduction for the control of exotic plant pests, and also is one
reason why they're vulnerable to extinction.

Clearly, any attempt at biological control should be very, very carefully
tested and we should be wary of the potential downside, but I don't think
we should write off the possibility in knee-jerk fashion.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>