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A weevil update took place Wednesday evening at the residence of Center Lake Conservation Association President William Hilliard.
EnviroScience consultants from Ohio, Kerry Kline and Mark Schaab, came to check on the sites where the weevils were planted and monitor their progress.
Kline explained that weevils are light dependent. They migrate to the shore according to the length of the days. The coldness of the water doesn't affect them. They will leave the lake for winter in October and return in April.
Kline and Schaab will take samples of Eurasian Water Milfoil, the weed that has been taking over Center Lake and the only food source for weevils, from each site and test the density. Kline said they would need about 30 stems from each site. They will also look for eggs, larvae and adults on each stem and see how much damage has been done to the milfoil.
"The whole lake seems better," said Center Lake Conservation Association Treasurer Neal Carlson.
Kline and Schaab planted weevils at three sites in Center Lake in July. They swam around the area of the third site for several minutes Wednesday when Kline said, "I haven't even seen a plant yet."
They finally found about five plants to take back with them for study.
"That's good," Kline said in reference to the scarcity of milfoil.
At the second site Schaab said, "It's not very dense down there. It's pretty sparse, actually."
All the milfoil stems they found were damaged.
The first site is still pretty dense. Kline and Schaab found a little damage on the stems but not much.
Kline and Schaab will keep the bags of milfoil and weevil samples refrigerated until they can analyze them, but they said it appears the weevils are doing their job. The milfoil at the three testing sites is decreasing and almost gone in one case.
Schaab said he and Kline should have the results of the analysis by the end of September or beginning of October. They will contact Hilliard with the results.
