Today was probably the most exciting day of my career with the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture. It marked a major milestone in a project that began in 1999 when entomologist Mohsen Ramadan collected the moth Secusio extensa in Madgascar. There has been many hurdles, but we finally got it out and it has begun to feed on fireweed on a few different spots on the Big Island. There are people that question what I do, namely biocontrol, but it is hard, at least in my mind, to criticize a project like this. Fireweed infestations go from sea level all the way to the frost line on our highest mountains. They're taking over range-land and anywhere that gets distrubted with hundreds of thousands of acres infested throughout the state. AND it is toxic to cattle and horses— kills them in a rather horrible and painful way. There's no guarantee that it will work, but ranchers are some of my favorite people (they have horses!), and it would be a sad, sad day in Hawai‘i if ranching came to an end— which this weed can do.
Links:
Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture News Release
