However, because of its rapid growth and abundant flowering, the weed has become an environmental menace. It develops into really dense stands and crowds out native vegetation. Students, the Illinois Department, and workers from the Forest Preserve are helping in the fight by raising and releasing beetles native to Europe that feed almost exclusively on Loosestrife. They chew the leaves, lay eggs on the stalks, and the hatching larvae feed on the flowering stem, controlling the plant's growth and reproduction. This is GOOD NEWS for cattails, because this noxious weed has been crowding out cattails in Lake County since about 1988.
Biologists are eager to use the natural control of beetles instead of herbicides.
The first beetles were released in North America in 1994, and 110,000 beetles were released in Lake County in 1997. Students from Lakeview High School in Chicago and Palatine High in Cook County helped raise the beetles and released them in June, 1998. Written and Compiled by Mrs. Stueckemann Reference Rooney, Timothy. Pictures taken by the Twin Groves Virtual Wetland Preserve Team Created for the Museums in the Classroom program sponsored by Illinois State Board of Education , the Brookfield Zoo , the Illinois State Museum. , and Kildeer Countryside CCSD 96.