[MAIPC] Surveying for native biological controls

[Richard Gardner]

 Search form synergies going on between multiple organisms. Multiflora rose has at least a three organism synergy and Ailanthus has at least a four organism system destroying it. (Also, Atteva aurea, the Ailanthus web worm, wanders far from its origin.) I gave up looking for "magic bullets" (single organisms) and now look for "magic systems" (groups of organisms who each have a part in controlling a non-native). It is much harder process to understand but I see it continually when I walk.
Ultimately the best place to search for these organisms is in your back yard and close to home because that is the area you know best and will be able to tell when there are changes. Most of what I have learned is within 20 minutes of me, including overhanging our back porch.
Good science can be done in our back yards and does not require expensive trips to exotic locations.
                                                    Richard Gardner
    On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 02:22:13 PM EDT, Imlay, Marc <Marc.Imlay at pgparks.com> wrote:  
 
  
Surveying for native biological controls has two approaches that have worked very well.
 
1.    Search at the far end of the range of the invasive plant species. The native insect/fungus bio controls for Multiflora Rose and Tree of Heaven popped up when MFR moved to the middle of the America and Ailanthus to the deep south central. 
 
2.    Search near where the invasive first came to America so there has been more time for a biocontrol to evolve as may be the case for Japanese honeysuckle at Heritage Island which was brought over by Thomas Jefferson.
 
For Porcelain berry, for example,  look athttps://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=AMBR7  Note the 17 states it is invasive in. So let us se if an insect of pathogen is having a major impact on it in the extreme of the range. If so we can report it to Matt Tancos at USDA for research. Let us do the same for ground ivy, beefsteak plant, Fig buttercup, JSG, WLBG, Oriental bittersweet, garlic mustard, etc., etc.
 
  
 
Marc
 
Marc Imlay, PhD, Chair, Biological Control Working Group MAIPC
 
Conservation Biologist, Park Ranger Office, Non-native Invasive Plant Control Coordinator.
 
Cell: (301) 442-5657, ialm at erols.com
 
Natural and Historical Resources Division
 
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
 
www.pgparks.com
 
  
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