Roseau Cane Quarantine In Effect
The Department of Agriculture and Forestry has ordered an emergency quarantine so that Roseau cane south of LA Highway 10 is not transported out of the area. A tiny invasive insect is damaging the plant, which is a vital part of Louisiana’s wetland. Commissioner Mike Strain says it’s already effected 200,000 acres.
“Between now and duck season we don’t want people moving Roseau cane from one area to another because it will spread the scale. The scale is devastating to the Roseau cane, it kills it, and it destroys it.”
The agency is working with partners to find a solution, but doesn’t have a fix just yet. The scale, native to China and Japan, can usually be burned out, but Strain says Louisiana is in a uniquely bad position.
“We cannot burn the cane to stop that because of the number of camps, oil wells, duck blinds, ect. It’s such a large scale.”
Hunters use the Roseau cane to camouflage their ducks blinds, and to hunters preparing for the next season: Strain says make sure you keep any cane you use to the immediate vicinity it came from.
“Use it where your duck blind is, don’t move it whatever you do. Please, don’t spread this stuff from where it’s infected.”
The agency does not yet have a solution to the infestation.
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