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Bug Doctors Take New Aim in Invasive Species Fight

Posted on: Sunday, 11 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

In a state that spends millions of dollars each year to kill non- native plants that have consumed about 1.5 million acres, it might seem unlikely that scientists would import these invasive species, and even less likely that they would cultivate them.

But within weeks, researchers with the University of Florida will be doing just that on the Treasure Coast.

Aiming to make non-native insects attack only exotic plants, eight scientists will study the invasive species in a $3.8 million high-security laboratory, which was dedicated Friday at the university's research center west of Fort Pierce.

The 17,000-square-foot facility, authorized by the legislature, is one of only three such labs in the state.

"Almost $4 million sounds like a lot, but when you consider how much the state spends now to control invasive species, this is a pretty good investment," said state Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, who spearheaded the effort to bring the lab to the Treasure Coast.

In 2000, the state spent more than $90 million combating non- native species, like the Mexican bromeliad weevil and the air potato, a climbing vine that can grow four inches in a day, said Dr. Bill Overholt, an entomologist who will study invasive species at the new lab.

"The beauty of biological control is that once an effective natural enemy is established in the state, it will provide long- term, self-perpetuating regulation of the target pests at no cost to taxpayers," he said.

He and entomologist Dr. Jim Cuda, based in Gainesville, hope to release a sawfly later this year that will attack only the Brazilian pepper tree, one of the most aggressive invasive plants in the state. University of Florida scientists have searched for 10 years to find a natural combatant to the South American tree.

Now researchers at the Fort Pierce facility will be able to mimic the Brazilian climate in a quarantined lab, where they can control light, temperature and humidity to study the sawfly's effect on the plant.

"We have to do it in a secure facility because native plants would be at risk if we just brought the fly out and released it," Cuda said.

State and university dignitaries got a peek at the lab Friday before it is closed except to scientists, who will have to go through a series of cells before reaching the quarantined portion of the lab where thousands of plants and insects will be studied in six greenhouses and six insect-rearing rooms.

Everything in the lab down to the nails, is covered in silicone to create an airtight shield, said David Birkelbach, an assistant project manager with the Jacksonville-based Elkins Constructors Inc., which spent a year building the facility.

To make it nearly impossible for exotic insects to escape, only one door to the maze of rooms can open at a time, Birkelbach said.

Researchers must wear lab coats and boots. Everything coming into the lab is fumigated. Everything leaving, even a scrap of paper, is sterilized in a steam chamber, and bathroom facilities are connected to a sewage system that links only to the lab.

Overholt says the measures may seem extreme, but the end results could be invaluable.

Florida scientists achieved their first success with biological control in the 1970s, when three South American insects proved effective combatants of the invasive alligator weed. Today, Overholt said, they regulate its density so well, the weed is no longer considered a problem in Florida.

rachel_harris@pbpost.com

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