Just saw a presentation on Giant Salvinia this past Tuesday (3/25/08) by TPWD. It was a great presentation. In warmer waters/weather (soon to be upon us), it will double it's size in 3-4 days.

It breaks up and is not just one giant plant. Most effective treatment is a 'weevil' that eats it (and just about only that plant), but getting them is difficult. Also, it can be treated with chemicals.

In Texas and LA it is outlawed. Ark., OK, NM and many other states, it's perfectly legal. Problem is going to be where it is warmer.

The ramp at 315 on Lake Palestine is still closed, but they are still finding 'some' of the Salvina upon re-inspection. They have looked up in the creeks quite a bit, and haven't found it anywhere else. They don't want to re-open the ramp, till they are positive they have it all. In short, they are waiting for it to get a little warmer (where the plants would start growing again), to see if there is more of an outbreak.

I'AM for what juggaloking says HARVEST IT , iF YOU POUR CEMS ON IT YOU GET CEMS IN THE WATER AND HURT THE FISH AND US.PULL IT OUT AND RECYCLE OR BURN

Would an expert on this situation be willing to come to a bass club meeting and give a presentation?

Unfortunately, I'm guessing that we can battle this thing as hard as we can and the best case scenario is that we're gonna slow it down but never quite stop it. I think the best hope would be to find a commercial use for it, such as feedlot food, biofuel, salad ingredients, etc. If there's money in it, let people harvest the heck out of it and that alone will keep it under control. Unfortunately, it will take better minds than mine to come up with a commercial use. Does anyone know if it's edible? Can it be used as biofuel? Can cows digest it?
While I agree that this is very bad for our fisheries, if it's an aquatic plant (a non-emergent) it will put oxygen into the water. If you've ever kept planted aquariums with adequate lighting, you can see oxygen being produced by any plant. It's basic biology, plant photosynthesis produces oxygen. The bad part is that the plants abundance will block out life giving light for other phytoplankton and aquatic vegetation.

Actually if salvinia completely covers the surface of an area it will cause oxygen depletions in that area. For photosynthesis to take place, you need sunlight.

Wow, here are the pics I found of places on Lake Bistineau in Louisiana that have it...Amazing on what this stuff can grow to....








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I've googled around trying to find a supplier of these weevils that eat the damn weeds and can't find one.

Anyone know of a supplier?

After reading about it in this thread and seeing the picture...

I'm pretty sure we saw some Saturday on Toledo Bend in 6 Mile Bay back past the 87 Bridge floating in the main creek channel??

Bazz

Yikes - we don't want giant salvinia in Colorado either! (Looks good to eat with ranch dressing from the photo...) You guys keep your bass boats at home when you visit us this summer!

Right now, all our mountain lakes are frozen like a steel drum...but in a month we should be able to fish in the Colorado mountains! home Denver real estate is scheduled for 80 degrees today - and snow/rain tomorrow...so don't let me hear you complaining about Texas weather!

killerjeff

I wonder if you could kill it with something like a flame-thrower?

If you can't flame throw it I wonder if you could hit it with Liquid Nitrogen? Has to be something you could do to kill it.

if liquid nitrogen dont kill it, the salvinia will kill us all.

The key here is finding a way to control it economicaly. TPWD doesn't have the money or manpower to manually remove it or spray every patch that appears if it becomes widespread. I haven't seen any data about whether or not it can be spread by waterbirds. If it can, it'll eventually be in every body of water in East Texas including all of our favorite farm ponds.

if it can, the whole world is screwed.

The first that we herd of giant salvinia back in 1991 when it was reported to be in one of the concrete pond in Dallas TX., it was reported that they clean it out, then in less than 30 day it has cover the pond again.
In march of 1993 we were down at Toledo Bend fishing a tournament out of Frontier Parks, we stay over at Pendleton Harbor. The giant salvinia had the boat ramps cover up. It here to stay.
Just about all lake will get it soon or later, most of the lake and rivers in Louisiana have it all ready.
The only way that we can slow this Giant Salvinia form moving to other lake here in Texas, is look around the boat ramps as we put our boat on the trailer and make sure that we DON’T have any on our trailer or trap under our boat, on the trailer runners. The Giant Salvinia will get in your live well, I have seen it myself as we did live well check this past October, it come in from your live well drain, if you don’t have your live well plug.
I’m a full time guide on Caddo Lake and it is taking Caddo over in about 18 mouths, Caddo is not like any other lake in Texas, you can’t spray every were, do to all the Cypress trees, it will kill them.

We plan on doing a outdoor show with the TPWD in the next 4 week on Caddo Lake, The ARK-LA-TEX SPORTSMAN OUTDOOR SHOW plan on making a show on the plant on Caddo Lake. This will cover all the plant in Caddo Lake, GOOD and Bad.

Hi everyone. I am a PCO Pest Control Operator that is, licensed in aquatic vegetation control, and specializing in exotic species. There has been a low level battle with this and several other aquatic invaders for many years now.

The very best way to prevent it's spread, is to make sure that boats, trailers, and all lake recreational equipment is thoroughly inspected, and cleaned. That includes live wells, and bilge. From what I see in my neck of the woods, we have a serious problem with Salvinia Molesta, Water Hyacinth, and Hydrilla. I know a lot of fishermen who think a little hydrilla is good for bass fishing, but when the wrong conditions prevail, hydrilla can be as bad as Salvinia.

The alternatives for fighting aquatic weeds are limited to 3. Mechanical, biological, and chemical.

The problem with any mechanical method is, that most of these plants can reproduce at a rate of better than 50% per fragmented pieces. Mechanical control is the least favorable option!

Biological controls, are very limited. There is a weevil that eats hyacinth, and some insects that favor some of the other plants, but they don't seem to work well. Besides, the introduction of one predator to get rid of another, introduces a new exotic species into the mix. If conditions favor the new entity, it can become more of a problem! The other is white amur, the grass carp, but if you introduce enough of them to do the job, they might just eat all the vegetation, and leave nothing for the other fish!

Chemical controls seem to work best, and have the least environmental impact. They can be targeted to specific plants, and will leave the fish alive and well when properly applied.

The main tool however is prevention! http://www.texpest.com/daquatic.html has several articles on the topic.

Hi Alien,

I understand even the chemical method has it's drawbacks as well. The dead weed sinks to the bottom and smothers oxygen producing plants that fish need to breathe.

Is this a major draw back or is the harm negligible compared to this damn weed?

Also, how much money would it cost to use chemicals on a lake as big as Toledo Bend for example? Ball park figure will do.

And naturally after that we'd need to educate boaters and strictly enforce preventative measures to stop re-infestations.

Thanks.

I had an Uncle get this stuff in his 11 acre pond mid summer last year. By late fall, it had covered the pond completely and when the weather cooled off, all of the fish went belly-up too. It's really bad news!!!

My Dad Lives on Toledo Bend on the North End. You can sit on his front porch and see giant mats of this [censored] floating down south in the river channel.

Texas Parks & Wildlife
Great Salvinia Problems:
Day on Caddo Lake with Tim Bister & Michael Brice from the Marshall, TX TP&W Office.
You can order a DVD from: Ark-La-Tex Sportsman.

It's been a while since I've updated this thread.

I spoke by phone this afternoon with Dr. Richard Ott. (June 16, 2008)

He told me that he was cautiously optimist that Lake Palestine may have dodged the bullet with the Giant Salvinia occurance there. The boat ramp on Kickapoo has been reopened. To date they have found no more live Giant Salvinia at this location, or anywhere else on Lake Palestine.

Brandy Branch is still an ongoing problem, as is Caddo.

Dr. Ott had no new information on other lakes at this time.

Let's keep our collective fingers crossed folks....

TFP

Do they know how far north it has spread yet?

Caddo Lake;
Herbicid application is on going for WATER HYACINTH & GIANT SALVINIA and it doing so good.
Wed. Aug 6th TPW put out some more salvia weevil, they put them in a floating structure so they can study the progress of the weevil.
Would you beleve that some one took one of there floating structure.