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Highlands Today

That Fly You Swat May Be Here To Help

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Highlands Today staff

Published: October 24, 2007

That fly you're trying to swat just might be a big help in scientists efforts to eradicate a weevil that's killing wild bromeliad's living throughout the area. Then again, it might just be a house fly that's driving you crazy. It's difficult to tell. But just in case, chase it outside.

Plant experts have finally found a predator of the Mexican weevil, a tiny thing brought into south Florida a few year ago. The weevil makes a nest in bromeliads growing in our trees. In Highlands Hammock State Park, 100 of the flies, which lay eggs that kill the weevil larvae, were recently released. Thousands more of the flies were released in the Everglades.

Scientists hope the flies will reproduce and soon get the weevil population under control. To most of us, we wouldn't even know there was a problem. The bromeliads being destroyed are "air plants" that grow high in trees. Only trained eyes can tell what's happening.

So what happens if the weevils devastate these bromeliads? Good question, but experts say it disrupts the habitat when these species vanish, and that only makes sense. Let's just hope the flies don't turn out to be the next problem insect.

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