Approximately only 3% of Hartbeespoort Dam is currently covered with hyacinth. “And we’d like to thank our army of little workers for doing their job, day in and day out, without pay, no weekends or public holidays… thanks Megamelus scutellaris for getting the water hyacinth cover down,” said Prof. Julie Coetzee of the Centre for Biological Control at Rhodes University.
“There are suggestions that the plants have been sprayed recently, and if that is the case, spraying the last remnants doesn’t detract from the awesome work that the hoppers have done over the last few months,” she said.