Paintball Poison: Airborne Marksmen To Take Aim At Invasive Plants
The Department of Land and Natural Resources has obtained the state procurement officer鈥檚 approval to purchase a herbicide that can target remote stands of Australian tree ferns, kahili ginger, and banana poka.
The herbicide, HBT-IMAZ, is registered for use only in the state of Hawaii, and only on those three species of plants.
What makes it even more unusual is the method of delivery: paintballs, shot from airguns by marksmen in helicopters or on the ground.
Maker of the ammo is the Nelson Paint Company, which is probably better known for its paintballs than its pesticides.
According to Lance de Silva, of the Kauai branch of the DLNR鈥檚 Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the chemical was developed by James Leary of the University of Hawaii鈥檚 College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
鈥淗e worked hand in hand with the company鈥 鈥 manufacturer Wilbur-Ellis 鈥 鈥渢o get it registered,鈥 and then with the paint company to design the delivery system. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of his baby,鈥 de Silva said.
Now that approvals are in hand, de Silva hopes to be able to start using the product in a few months. He won鈥檛 be using it to control banana poka or kahili ginger, he said, but the paintballs are perfect for getting to Australian tree ferns in difficult-to-reach areas.
What makes it especially cost-effective, he said, is the fact that control can be done at the same time that the plants are identified.
鈥淲hen we do surveys for these weeds, we can actually treat them at the same time we find them, rather than having to return. We can suppress as we鈥檙e doing the surveys. It鈥檚 a nice, cost-efficient tool.鈥
About the author: Patricia Tummons is editor of Environment Hawaii, a publication she helped to found in 1990. Before that, she wrote editorials for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Reprinted with permission from the current issue of , a non-profit news publication. The entire issue, as well as more than 20 years of past issues, is available free to Environment Hawaii subscribers at www.environment-hawaii.org. Non-subscribers must pay $10 for a two-day pass.
