May 6, 2009
Beetle Release Day
This spring, as part of the ongoing Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol Project that was initiated in 2007, the Cambridge Water Department purchased 5000 Galerucella Beetles. The beetles eat only Purple Loosestrife, an invasive plant that takes over wetlands including one on the Reservation near Little Fresh Pond. Today was delivery day. Here, in the wetland where the beetles will be released, Emily Tansey (Watershed Manager's Assistant), Dave Kaplan (Water Quality Supervisor), and Vince Falcione (Reservation Site Supervisor), hold a paper bucket containing the beetles. When the lid was removed, the insects immediately began crawling out onto the nearby loosestrife plants. They are tiny, about the size of a grain of rice.