Happy Monday Tees Troopers!
Today we wanted to write a blog about our current #BINNS project and how the current rust release on the invasive species, Himalayan Balsam is going!
We are just over halfway through our rust releases on our Himalayan Balsam sites which is really exciting! Our first release was towards the end of June, so this time the release involved monitoring to see the success of the first rust spraying which happened at the end of July!
It has been really exciting to see the success of the rust spreading on the underside of the balsam leaves!
The small white dots (on the first picture) is the rust forming in its early stages, as the rust progresses, they form small rusty colour dots seen in the other photographs. There can be one to thousands of pustules on one leaf! We have taken lots of photos and sent these off to CABI to be checked over.
We are really excited to see the progress at the next monitoring and final release towards the end of August in the hope that the rust has spread to other Himalayan Balsam plants on the sites. Hopefully we are well on our way to a self sustaining and long term control of this invasive non-native species!