WHAT'S BUGGIN' CHARLIE'S WOODS?

            We're building a new park on the west end of our block. It's four corners dedicated to the public in 1910 it's been a blank slate ever since.  Slowly, "Four Corners Park" is coming to be.  The coolest part is the wooded section.  We call it "Charlie's Woods" because the late Grove legend, Charlie Cinnamon, lived in a historic bungalow next door.

          Those heart-shaped leaves to the right?  Potato vines! 

    The woods is filled with invasive trees and plants.  Our mission is to eradicate them so we can replace them with natives.  One of the big pests is the potato vine.  They engulf everything every summer  blocking light, sucking up nutrients, and generally making it difficult for the "good plants" to grow.
    Months ago I attended a butterfly festival in Gainesville, Florida.  One booth had a sign reading, "We can eat your potato vines!"  In inquired and learned that the U.S. Dept. of agriculture was giving away "potato vine beetles", bugs that eat the invasive vine.
    I signed up for the program and last week an ag official came to Charlie's Woods to set 300 of these bugs free.  Now they are happily munching away turning the large heart-shaped leaves into lace. No, it won't kill them (you have to dig the potato-like seed out of the ground to do that) but it slows them down.  It's mother nature's way of tipping the scale.