Status: Invasive. Biocontrol efforts are in practice.
Location info:
This plant has been documented from Mississippi area. It a fairly common
emergent plant species in the South and can be found easily in drainage
ditches and lake edges.
Info:
Alligator weed provides us with a good example of an invasive weed that
has been succesfully managed through biological control programs. Take
these numbers for instance. There were 97,000 problem acres of alligatorweed
in the US in 1963; by 1981 there were less than 1,000 problem acres. Why
did this happen? It was mostly the work of the following three biocontrol
insects (introduced in that order).
Biocontrol insects:
Alligatorweed flea beetle
(Agasicles hygrophila)
Alligatorweed thrips (Amynothrips
andersoni)
Alligatorweed stem borer
(Vogtia malloi) - as shown in the video.