Title: Weevil success in Australia's top end action on weeds
[ABC News 12 Sept 2011 by James Glenday] -- A small weevil is fighting an aggressive weed in the Top End of Australia. The green seed-feeding weevil was introduced into the Northern Territory in the mid-1990s in an effort to control the South American weed, Mimosa. Mimosa has infested about 80,000 hectares of Top End floodplains. Authorities thought the experiment had failed. But the weevil has recently been found eating the weed around Darwin, Adelaide River and Daly River. Rangers hope the weevil will eventually eradicate Mimosa the floodplains. Bert Lukitsch, of the Territory Environment Department, says the tiny insect has already stopped the spread of the weed in parts of the Top End. "Mimosa basically forms large thickets, which can be up to six-metres-high and thorny," he said. "It stops people from using the land." More than a dozen other insects have been tried to control Mimosa, without success. Infestations of the weed also occur in Queensland, and there are fears it could spread to Western Australia and northern New South Wales.
Photo: Mimosa has invaded big areas of floodplains in the Northern Territory and Queensland, and there are fears it could spread to Western Australia and northern New South Wales.
