Again as with other noxious weeds, followup, follow up and follow up are key.
I'm getting some results with bugs and I think they will be the most cost effective way to eradicate this problem.
A bug program also has to be managed and a plan followed. You will need to establish a good population. That won't happen if someone comes along with a mower during June and mows the plants down. Or someone comes along spot spraying too early in the season and decides to help the bugs out.
Using bugs Leafy Spurge can be sprayed but only at the right time. After a frost and the bugs have already gone into the root system.
The first year you plant bugs I would suggest you not mow or do any spraying. Leave an acre or two for the bugs to build a population.
Work on other areas.
I now have bugs in every Leafy spurge patch I know of .(2015)
In years past I sprayed. Some in the spring with 2,4-D Ester at the rate of 1.5 qts per acre. I used this rate to keep those plants from making any seed and to weaken them for a fall kill.
Basically that's all spring spraying does on established patches of noxious weeds. It just keeps seed from being made and weakens the plant for a fall kill.
In the fall I followed up with 1 qt per acre Tordon and in the spring I check again. Not in May, Not in June, but around the 1st week in July.
If there are any stragglers that I missed, they will not show up until about the first week in July.
Too many people make the mistake of follow up checking their fall sprayed patches in May or early June and not seeing anything assume they got a 100% kill. They never bother to go back and check and the next year they have an established patch again.
Follow up the first week in July and then check again the following fall.
It has been my experience that using that rate of Tordon, it will knock those plants into the ground for a years time and then the root system will start to grow and they will begin to show up again as stragglers. I've heard using Plateau it knocks them for two years.
Follow up, check closely for stragglers and if you see any, use the 1.5 qt per acre rate of 2,4-D Ester. You don't need the Tordon. This plant is weak and the 2.4- D will keep it down.
Go back in the following spring and locate any new patches that may be starting. Mark them for a new place to start bugs. In two years time you should have a large enough population of bugs to collect from and move to these new spots coming back to life. Stop spraying and move bugs.
Collection is done around the middle of June to the first part of July on a warm day. That is the period when they are laying eggs and are most abundant.
Once you have the bugs established they will work down into the root system of the leafy spurge and eventually eradicate it and then the bugs will die off.
You have to manage the bugs and keep moving them to new food supplies or once they are out of food they will die.
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Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
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Kenny Konechne
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