Bye-bye melaleuca?

Melaleuca, introduced to help rid south Florida of excess water but deemed a threat when it worked too well, appears to be on its way out. The species was brought from Australia in the early 1900s to help soak up excess water in low-lying areas. The concept initially appeared to work well, but melaleuca's prolific reproduction and lack of natural enemies threatened 7.6 million acres of the Everglades.

Since then, numerous federal and state attempts to control melaleuca have met with little success, efforts that range from spraying with defoliants to clearing with bulldozers and burning. In fact, burning the trees made matters worse; the heat induced the melaleuca to release seeds that then spread to surrounding areas.

In 1999. after five years of quaratined research, efforts took a different tact. The state Department of Environmental Protection, South Florida Water District, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the small Australian snout beetle (Oxyops vitiosa) in areas infested with heavy growths of melaleuca. The small insect feeds exclusively on melaleuca, specifically on the tissue that would otherwise become seed capsules.

Since the beetle's release nearly four years ago the project "has worked stupendously well," according to Ted Center, entomologist with USDA's Agricultural Research Service, which developed the project.

Areas formerly so thick with melaleuca that even deer couldn't tread through them are now significantly leaner, and although the concept didn't work as well in aquatic terrains as in other areas, the results overall have been better than expected, Center says. He believes they've turned the corner to finally getting melaleuca under control. Although some large areas still need to be cleared, he adds, south Florida seems safe from a reinvasion by the water-sucking trees.