SIGNS will go up riverside at North Richmond next Monday to notify the public when weed spraying starts in a bid to arrest the spread of Senegal tea plant.
Hawkesbury River County Council’s manager of weed operations Chris Stanfield said weather permitting, they would begin a campaign of three spraying programs over eight months.
Next week’s blitz will focus on the Senegal tea, but the officers will also be going after alligator weed, water hyacinth and salvinia.
“Senegal tea is floating – it forms dense mats and and has flowers like little white pom poms, like clover flowers. It will be flowering very shortly,” Mr Stanfield said.
“It’s heaviest at North Richmond and its main infestation area is between there and Windsor bridge though there are minor infestations down to Sackville.
“It’s attached to the bank and has dense root mats so it’s not possible to just pull it all out on the bank.”
He said they will spotspray with metsulfuron methyl. “We’re using it at very low concentration and low pressure.” He said little would get into the water as the weed mats were so dense.
“We’ll also be doing some restricted spraying on alligator weed, at waterfront reserves and parks.” He said this was because they wanted to minimise human interaction with the weed, as it is brittle and breaks off easily when disturbed – it’s main method of spreading. They will use the same chemical as on the Senegal tea.
He said water hyacinth and salvinia weren’t big problems this year and would just get a spotspray with glyphosate bioactive, which breaks down.
