Controlling Invasive Salvinia molesta Weeds by Using Cyrtobagous salviniae

Overview

This experiment was performed to significantly cut down the amount of polluted freshwater bodies in the world. This experiment has findings that make this much faster, easier, and cheaper than any other largely practiced method. The goal of the experiment was to discover if larger groups of salvinia weevils are more impactful than smaller, then to find the point where it becomes a significant difference in control. This project used three groups of salvinia weevils as a biological control method for the giant salvinia plant, observing and measuring the dispersal rate of groups of 1, 5, and 12 weevils per replication over 24 hours. Once the results and statistics were gathered and calculated, it was discovered that larger groups do have a significant difference in dispersal and damage, more specifically, the 12 weevil group had a larger impact than the 1 and 5 groups. This experiment concluded that when biologically controlling giant salvinia plants, using at least 12 weevils per half square foot of salvinia will yield significant results within 24 hours.

Competition history

• ISEF 2025 Earth and Environmental Sciences · Entry EAEV054

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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