{"id":58754,"date":"2021-07-25T19:40:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T00:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58754"},"modified":"2021-07-25T19:40:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T00:40:28","slug":"backyard-biocontrol-using-natural-enemies-to-wipe-out-invasive-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58754","title":{"rendered":"Backyard biocontrol \u2013 using natural enemies to wipe out invasive weeds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Backyard biocontrol \u2013 using natural enemies to wipe out invasive weeds<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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The agricultural-residential interface<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four years ago we moved to the family farm (where I grew up) and we\u2019ve enjoyed restoring the 1 acre landscape around the farmhouse. Given that the residential part of this farm is surrounded by pastureland, there is a continual influx of weed seeds into our managed beds. While our thick applications of arborist wood chips have kept out many weeds, they still pop up where mulch hasn\u2019t been applied yet or is too thin.<\/p>\n

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    Hold a stem of\u00a0Hypericum perforatum\u00a0<\/em>up to the sky to see tiny perforations in the leaves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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    Photosensitized livestock will suffer severe sunburning after consuming\u00a0Hypericum perforatum<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    One of these weeds is\u00a0Hypericum perforatum<\/em>\u00a0(also known as Klamath weed or St. John\u2019s wort), a species native to Eurasia. The latter common name can confuse gardeners, as there are several ornamental species of\u00a0Hypericum<\/em>\u00a0also called St. John\u2019s wort, but\u00a0H. perforatum<\/em>\u00a0is easily identified by the perforations in the leaf. This invasive species is a problem for our cattle, as Klamath weed causes photosensitivity when it\u2019s consumed and can be toxic in large amounts.<\/p>\n

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    The weeds to the right of my raised beds include St. John\u2019s wort, or\u00a0Hypericum perforatum<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In the last few years\u00a0H. perforatum<\/em>\u00a0colonized our stockpile of native soil waiting to be used in our raised beds. It was a small enough infestation that we could pull it all up, but a closer look revealed that some shiny metallic beetles were already busy feasting on the leaves. Putting on my IPM hat, I first needed to identify these interesting beetles. It didn\u2019t take long to find out they were a\u00a0Chrysolina<\/em>\u00a0species.<\/p>\n

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      Chrysolina<\/em>\u00a0spp. beetles on St. John\u2019s wort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Backyard biocontrol \u2013 using natural enemies to wipe out invasive weeds The agricultural-residential interface Four years ago we moved to the family farm (where I grew up) and we\u2019ve enjoyed restoring the 1 acre landscape around the farmhouse. Given that the residential part of this farm is surrounded by pastureland, there is a continual influx […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[31487,1912,346,31486],"class_list":["post-58754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-biocontrol","tag-food-production","tag-gardening","tag-gardening-professors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58755,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58754\/revisions\/58755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}