Have you been constantly frustrated by the time and energy, not to mention the money, that you put into totally eradicating Japanese knotweeds from your backyard, only to see the spot green and healthy with new shoots a few days after? This weed has been a big headache in United Kingdom for a moment. Not long after its introduction in the 1800’s, the plant has invaded many of United Kingdom’s land area and wastelands. It has posed a real danger to the native plant species as they are extremely resilient to numerous methods of eradication. They crowd out native species and lessen the species variety in the region.

There have been very many ways employed to manage the growth and spread of the invasive Japanese knotweed, from pesticides to carefully removing the plants to introducing its real parasite, Aphalara itadori. These psyllids, as they are called, are sap-sucking insects which are also belonging to Japan from where the weed also originated. Aphalara itadori is named jumping plant louse. The premeditated introduction of this psyllid is supported by scientific research from CABI however not everybody are ecstatic to the concept.

The research has spanned some six years, analyzing more than two hundred control means and has decided that the jumping plant louse is the best alternative among all these. It further specifies the reason that renders this psyllid the best choice, which is the reality that it is a sap-sucking insect, therefore it is host exclusive. This is to pacify claims that the insect may relocate to native plants once it is brought into the ecosystem. The insect will slow down its growth and render it less aggressive. The insects will suck the juice from the plant during their larva stage. These may not absolutely put an end to the harmful weed. The point is to render them more manageable and render the control process more sustainable in the long run in addition to less expensive. An astounding sum of approximately 1.6 billion pounds yearly is spent on eradicating Japanese knotweed.

The introduction of a foreign species into United Kingdom presents a biological danger, many doubting Thomases say. What took place in Australia after introducing cane toads being an organic pest control for beetles in 1935, only to become an environmental threat today, may also happen to the UK. One more case was the introduction of harlequin ladybirds in a number of European countries for biological control but it only took them little time to cross over the English Channel and put the British ladybirds at stake. Japanese knotweed removal by the introduction of the jumping plant louse is going to be a lengthy deliberation. The face off of these two, the Japanese knotweed and its leading rival, the jumping plant louse, will not happen soon.