Bolles students released 100 air potato beetles on the Bolles Upper School San Jose Campus October 2 to support the Florida Department of Agriculture’s fight to protect native plant species.

Bolles upper school science teacher Dr. Brett Moyer said the air potato is an invasive vine with a heart-shaped leaf that can proliferate and shade out native species.

“It’s difficult to control, but the Florida Department of Agriculture has been developing methods of biological controls,” Moyer said. “They have imported and reared a natural enemy of this vine, the air potato beetle, or Lilioceris cheni, and have made it available to individuals in Florida.”

In 2017, Moyer’s Honors Environmental Science students obtained a population of these species from the research laboratory and released them in The Bolles Cypress Swamp Nature Preserve, which had been plagued by air potato infestations. This beetle species munches on the heart-shaped leaves of the plant and slows its spread.

Fast forward seven years, the Florida Department of Agriculture offered a second beetle species from Nepal, Liloceris egena, which feeds on the potato-like bulbil of the air potato. Moyer said this will help to further debilitate this troublesome plant species and help give Florida native species a better chance.

“Today we released the 100 beetles that we had been allotted,” Moyer said. “Note that the heart-shaped leaves already had lots of holes in them, evidence that the previously released air potato beetle species is still eating the leaves. Fingers crossed that these new beetles will attack the potatoes and keep swatting back this noxious species.”

Great job, Bulldogs! #BollesInnovates