CHIMACUM — The newest noxious weed-killing warriors in Jefferson and Clallam counties don’t come from a spray gun or jail chain gang.
They have funny-looking Latin names and love to dine on non-native Scotch broom, meadow knapweed and purple loosestrife.
Weed seed-eating insects are being unleashed by the thousands on plants they once devoured in Europe, vegetation unwittingly brought to the North Olympic Peninsula by pioneer families.
Those non-native weeds have wreaked havoc on native vegetation ever since.
“It’s really like reuniting the insect with the plant,” said Jennifer Andreas, Washington State University King County Extension Westside Weed Biocontrol Program coordinator.
Carol Dargatz, Jefferson County Noxious Weed Control Board coordinator, and Andreas gently dropped meadow knapweed seed-eating beetles at two Chimacum locations where the weed is running most rampant near Center Road and Nickelbush Lane.
Andreas was to have brought her ice chest of “chilling out” beetles to meet up Wednesday with Clallam County Noxious Weed coordinator Cathy Lucero to drop beetle bombs on that county’s meadow knapweed.
The insects — black and smaller than a lady bug — feed, eat and mate. They then lay eggs, larva of which eats knapweed seeds. The adults then strip down the rest of the weed’s leaves.
It’s nature’s way with bad weeds, one could say.
