re: Giant Salvania discussion thread

The stuff has destroyed duck hunting in many areas of south louisiana

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Don't move it. It is perfect for the political board. This plant sort of like duckweed but is an invasive species not from around here. All efforts to control it have been very expensive and only serve to knock it back temporarily. Once you let it in you can't get rid of it!

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So you're saying we need to build a wall???

It's a giant fern native to southern Brazil. First found in Toledo Bend around 98' or so. Several herbicides are active on it but due to high regrowth potential takes multiple applications making it very costly. Has a tremendous growth rate and essentially "pushes" all other surface aquatics out. Forms a dense mat that blocks sunlight to below surface aquatics. Once those die along with older salvinia the decaying biomass depletes oxygen levels leading to fish kills. So to treat would best be done sections at a time to prevent this but then again you have regrowth an costs associated with multiple applications. The salvinia weevil is effective as others have stated and populations have repeatedly been released to aid in mitigating the deleterious effects of the salvinia. But as mentioned the weevil activity is limited to the Nachitoches area south for most effectiveness due to lack of cold tolerance, which is trying to be introduced into the weevil.

Just built a camp at Black Lake right after the flood last march. Now it's all the way to the channel. I hadn't fished once since we've been here. At least I noticed the were spraying on the west side of the bridge.

Is it like Kudzu in North Florida?