Since 2021, I’ve been working to mitigate the invasive plant purple loosestrife along the Waupaca Chain O’Lakes shorelines. Last year, I shared my journey with you in the WCOLA Blog dated September 5th, 2023. For further background, you can read that blog HERE.
I’d like to share with you the continuation of my project for 2024 summer season.
This spring I resumed my work with Chris Hamerla, the Regional Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator at Golden Sands. Chris works on the Resource Conservation & Development Council, Inc.
April 22, 2024
I received potted purple loosestrife plants from Chis and will be trying something new, rather than planting the pots and placing them in the small kiddie pools like last year, I decided to plant them near the infested lake area. The wetland area in Camp Cleghorn has a former dock that is sturdy enough to walk on. I placed a wooden pallet in the water so that I could place the potted and netted plants in the water. It is my hope that there will be less work to grow the plants and beetles. This should also allow for more efficient release of beetles once they are ready.
May 8, 2024
Checked the progress of plantings, not much plant life is emerging from the pots, however very similar to the wetland infestation area.
May 14
I’ve started to see signs of growth, so I moved plants to a higher area to allow for better conditions for beetles to burrow in the ground.
On May 30,
Very active beetles were introduced to their new controlled environment. The good news is I also saw some natural feasting of beetles from last year on plants in the wetland!
June 24, 2024
I inspected the netted plants and noted half (6) were stripped of leaves and a lot of larvae looking for food along the stems. I released these larvae/beetles into the wetlands hoping that they will travel over and begin feasting on other plants in the area. I’ll wait for a few days on the other control plants as they had an adequate supply of leaves to eat.
I had to move the plants up again due to high water levels.
June 28, 2024
Inspected control plants, not much activity today and there are leaves on the stalks so will leave alone. Note one of the released plants on left side of picture is stripped of leaves and the plant from the wetland leaves have holes in them. The beetles and larvae must have made the journey over and are now free to eat, propagate and wipe out as many purple loosestrifes possible!
July 4, 2024
The host plants are looking stressed because of the beetle and larvae, so I decided to let them go feast on the infested wetlands.
The plants look stressed and beetles are crawling all over the plants.
Below is the wetland area that I’m working on to restore the natural swamp loosestrife (water willow, species of Decodon), purple loosestrife in the background.
July 24, 2024
non-infected purple loosestrife pictured below
Infected purple loosestrife plantings (below), note lack of flowers and numerous holes in leaves. This also helps to stop the spread of loosestrife seeds. This is important since seeds can remain viable for approximately 7 years.
2024 is proving to be a very successful year for purple loosestrife mitigation, and I’m hoping to see the spread of beetles into the wetlands by end of summer.
This winter, I plan on getting out there and cut the tops off of the plants and burn them. Then with the cooperation from Chris at Golden Sands I plan on returning to the project in 2025.
Stay tuned to another update in 2025 and follow along with this mitigation project. The reality is, we will never completely remove all the purple loosestrife from the area, but by removing as much as we can, we give the native plants an opportunity to grow and flourish. This is so important for keeping our lakes, our land and our entire Wisconsin ecosystem in balance.
You can find an article about this project, written by James Card and published in the Waupaca County Post: War on Purple Loosestrife: beetles vs weeds HERE
SPECIAL NOTE: There is another plant species called Northern willow-herb and hairy willow-herb that look a lot like purple loosestrife. The purple loosestrife has 4-6 sided, somewhat woody stems, and flowers have 5-7 purple petals surrounding small yellow centers arranged on spikes. The Northern willow-herb and hairy willow-herb has round stems and smaller, 4 petal pink flowers. So not all what you see from a distance is purple loosestrife, one needs to take a close look especially at the stems.
by MARK KUNSTMAN
Waupaca Chain O'Lakes Association
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Waupaca Chain O'Lakes Association
Stewardship and Resources Committee
Chair(s): Julie Mazzoleni, Fawn Johnson