Florida studies weevil biocontrol

Researchers at University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) were busy this summer releasing a parasitic fly that kills the Mexican bromeliad weevil.

The “evil weevil,” as it’s been dubbed by IFAS entomologists, has destroyed Florida’s native bromeliads. Many of the state’s bromeliads are threatened or endangered.

“To finally get it out there in the wild and see what it can do and if it can really help solve a problem, that’s what we’ve all been shooting for,” said Ron Cave, assistant professor of entomology.

Cave discovered the insect in the mountain forests of Honduras in 1993.

This is the first release of an organism reared at UF’s Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Cave said.

The flies were released at the end of June, and traps were put out mid-August to check on their progress. The results will show whether the second generation of flies can find and parasitize the weevils.

The weevil, native to Mexico and Guatemala, became established in Florida in 1989 when it arrived in Fort Lauderdale, apparently in a shipment of Mexican bromeliads.

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For more: Ron Cave, University of Florida, (772) 468-3922, rdcave@ufl.edu.