The entrepreneurial children and the bright green beetle tackling a serious ecological threat

Budding young entrepreneurs Jack Barker and his sister Kelly have come up with a unique plan to tackle the spread of one of northern Australia's most serious weeds — and make some money while doing it.

Jack and his 10 year-old sister have sold 150 beetles to neighbouring land owners who are battling to control the 1.5 metre sida plants, which grow rapidly during the Top End wet season.Experts from the CSIRO and NT government agencies discovered in the 1980s it was the weapon they needed to contain the spread of sida in the Territory.

The sida does not have a natural predator and it tends to quickly dominate native plants, preventing livestock, which do not eat it, from grazing on grass.Chinese prospectors who used its tough stems to make brooms are thought to have brought it to the Territory in the early 1900s."Anywhere where you have cattle or horses, it's really common," Michelle Franklin from the NT government's weed management branch said.

According to the government's weed management branch, the beetle reduces sida density from 22 plants per square metre to six over a year in some areas.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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