February 6, 1998
Middlebury College Enters Licensing Agreement
With EnviroScience Inc.
Ohio Company to Use Environmental Method Developed by Middlebury
Professor to Manage Milfoil Infestation in Lakes Across the Country
A licensing agreement between Middlebury
College and EnviroScience Inc. of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, will allow
the company to market a program in the United States and Canada
for the biological control-in the form of an insect-of Eurasian
water milfoil (EWM). A fresh water weed infesting lakes in over
40 states, milfoil out-competes most native plants and interferes
with recreational activities, wildlife habitat, and facilities
such as municipal water systems and power plants. Before its accidental
introduction into natural bodies of water, EWM was first imported
to North America for use in fish aquariums about 50 years ago.
Current efforts to control milfoil in the United States cost millions
of dollars annually.
Named the Middfoil® process, the biological control
program offered by EnviroScience was developed by Middlebury College
and Sallie Sheldon, associate professor of biology at Middlebury,
after over nine years of research. Middfoil® utilizes a tiny
water beetle known as a weevil that feeds on milfoil. The process
includes breeding this native insect on a massive scale and then
intentionally introducing it into the body of water where the
plant is a problem.
Middfoil® has a number of advantages, including
environmental safety-the weevil does not damage native plants
or animals. The insect is so tiny-slightly smaller than a grain
of rice-that swimmers are unaware of its presence. As milfoil
decreases in the treated lake, the weevil population gradually
declines to a self-sustaining level, offering long-term, low-maintenance,
economical control.
According to Marty Hilovsky, president of EnviroScience,
his company’s current and potential clients include lake associations
and state and federal government agencies. Middfoil® is currently
approved for use in Michigan and applications are pending in Vermont,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
“We’re happy to be able to tell those interested
in Middfoil® that the use of this process marks the first
time a native herbivore has been used to control an exotic plant.
This fact helps explain why the weevil has never shown any signs
of becoming an environmental problem itself,” said Hilovsky.
Milfoil must be managed continuously to sustain a
body of water’s environmental and economic integrity. Depending
on the initial density applied, weevils take from one to three
years to permanently stabilize milfoil below problematic levels
by eating the plants until the stems fall to the lake bottom.
Current control methods include physical, mechanical, and chemical
disruption processes that neither eradicate the weed nor provide
long-term effects. These processes are expensive, temporary measures,
ranging from weeding the lake by hand to using underwater mowers.
Due to their damaging effects on the environment, some of these
methods are banned in certain states.
“Using weevils rather than chemicals may take
more time, but the weevils are a natural alternative to herbicides
that can kill more than just milfoil, including native plants
and the fish that feed on them,” said Sheldon. According
to Hilovsky, weevils also cost less than any of the current control
methods.
Weevils have proved to be an effective control method
in Sheldon’s extensive field trials. She has conducted research
in Vermont, Massachusetts and Wisconsin with the support of numerous
grants, including more than $750,000 from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency through the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources,
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. More than 40 Middlebury
College students have assisted Sheldon in all aspects of her research,
including determining the weevil’s eating patterns and creating
proper conditions for breeding the insect on a large scale. The
College provided the facilities for breeding thousands of the
weevils Sheldon has introduced into lakes, including milfoil-infested
Lake Bomoseen in Rutland County, Vt.
Equipped with Sheldon’s research, EnviroScience is
poised to tackle the current milfoil crisis. The company’s team
of biologists has provided environmental services for over 10
years, maintaining one of the largest aquatic and ecological survey
departments in the Midwest. EnviroScience focuses on monitoring
the environmental health of biological systems in bodies of water-a
procedure known as biomonitoring-as well as lake management. Both
processes require implementing sampling procedures, collecting
the resulting data, and analyzing this information to establish
methods of biological control.
“Why do tourists want to rent a lake house when
they might not be able to fish, swim or boat? Why should taxpayers’
money go to cleaning milfoil out of a municipal water system?
We hope Middfoil® makes these questions unnecessary,”
Hilovsky said.
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