A beetle native to South America has become a friend to cattle ranchers in Florida and other southeastern states. This beetle eats an invasive and noxious weed that destroys pastures.
Julio Medal, a UF entomology researcher, has been working with his team since 1994 to find a bug that could get rid of the weed. Chemical herbicides and mowing were used with limited success to control tropical soda apple for the last decade. However, these expensive methods only worked temporarily.
In Florida, TSA has infested about 150,000 acres of pastureland.
Medal said it was difficult to find a bug that would not feed on anything except TSA. TSA is related to plants like eggplant, tomatoes, pepper and potatoes, and bugs that feed on one of those plants usually feed on them all.
However, the Gratiana boliviana, a Brazilian leaf beetle, proved to be the bug for the job.
“Bugs work slower than pesticides,” Medal said. “Sometimes it can take up to two years for the bugs to get rid of the weeds, but in the long run they work better and are cheaper than pesticides.”
The beetle has not been able to survive colder climates in northern Florida and southern Alabama, said Medal.
He is now working to gain approval from the USDA to release two more insects to control TSA.
The beetles have decreased the population density of TSA by about 90 percent in central Florida in about two years, according to William Overholt, a researcher on the project.
Cattle ranchers in Okeechobee County saw results after only two months.
“A woman called me in October, two months after we had released the beetles, and said, ‘You have to come see this. I can’t believe it,’” Medal said. “She was so happy with the results she told me she wanted to build a monument for me.”
