The South Dakota Department of Agriculture is using biocontrol agents to treat infestations of Purple Loosestrife… one of the state’s toughest noxious weeds. Brenda Sievers with the Department says in 2014 more than 8,000 acres were infested in the state. However, they are using beneficial insects to feed on Purple Loosestrife, which grow along water bodies like the Missouri River. So far their control efforts have been highly successful.

She says this week they completed the first step of that process by digging Purple Loosestrife roots along the Niobrara River in Nebraska and re-potting them.

Sievers says from there the Purple Loosestrife plants can be reintroduced with the beetles in trouble spots around the state.

The Department works with many county weed supervisors and groups like the Yankton Trustee Unit to pot the roots and disseminate plants and beetles every season. She says without control this noxious weed can cause serious damage and even redirect water bodies.