Weed sprouts as latest security threat on border

Since 04-08-07

http://www.numbersusa.com/news?ID=7688

USA Today via Indianapolis Star: April 5 , 2007

A giant, aggressive weed growing along the border with Mexico is draining massive quantities of water, overrunning roads and bridges and providing cover for illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and anyone else trying to sneak into the country, the Homeland Security Department says.

Anti-terrorism officials want the weed wiped out.

Called Carrizo cane, the non-native plant grows stalks up to 18 feet tall and can get so dense that it makes roads impassible.

"It's like a big spider web" that stretches for hundreds of miles and thousands of acres along the Rio Grande, says Hilario Leal, a Border Patrol agent in Del Rio, Texas.

A self-described "veteran of scratched eyes and hands" who once got so lost in the cane at night that he had to be guided out by helicopter, Leal says determined illegal immigrants cut trails through the dense stalks, and smugglers hide loads of drugs in the cane.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says the cane will interfere with government plans to install more cameras and ground sensors along the border.

So Homeland Security's Science and Technology division is paying the Agriculture Department $1.5 million this year for help in getting rid of the cane.

Scientists so far have determined that cutting it down with heavy machinery does little good; the stuff simply grows back. The area in question is too large to effectively spread chemical weedkillers.

It looks like the best way to combat the cane may be biological, with bugs collected from Spain, Homeland Security's Gerry Kirwin says.

If Agriculture Department scientists' early determinations prove right, the natural predators -- wasps, flies and scale -- would infest and kill both new shoots and mature stalks.

There's no fast fix. Kirwin says it will take three years of testing to determine whether the bugs really do the trick and make sure there wouldn't be any unforeseen consequences to importing the bugs into the United States.