Garlic Mustard

[Brian Bailey]

Okay, it's time there was something in this forum!

I've seen Garlic Mustard for years at Point Pelee and surrounding woodlots, but it's only in the last couple of years that I have started finding ir in my garden (a.k.a. weed magnet) in Toronto.  I was cycling through Sam Smith Park this evening and noticed several large clumps of it.  I don't remember seeing it there last year.  Does anyone know if it poses the same threat here as it does at Pelee?  There it appears to have the potential to choke out virtually any other herbaceous plant.

BB

[Kin Lau]

Same threat I believe. Doug Lockrey (who's actually a botanist besides a birder) mentioned that they're pulling it out at Thickson's Woods.

[Pat Hodgson]

This plant is now very thick in many areas of Toronto ravines.  Also a lot of Japanese knotweed.  (Another exotic, bamboo-like stalk but big leaves, grows tall and outshades anything near it.)
http://www.cabi-bioscience.org/html/japanese_knotweed_alliance.htm

There was a lot of garlic mustard in my yard when I moved here, I have finally eliminated it.
Garlic mustard seems to be especially "evil", check this out:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060514.wmustard0514/BNStory/Science/home
Right now it is flowering, you should pull up as much as you possibly can.

Pat Hodgson
Toronto

[Julia]

I listened to a program about garlic mustard on the CBC this week.  Apparently it's not just a problem of it choking out other ground-cover plants, but it also produces a chemical that affects the mychoryzzae (sp?) that co-exist with the trees.  While older trees don't seem to be affected, it is detrimental to the saplings and young trees.  Remains to be seen what its effect looks like in 50-100 years when the older trees in infested forests start dying out. (and as a mushroom picker, I wonder the effect on fungus fruit bodies - won't somebody please think of the boletes!)

Julia

[Lloyd]

Garlic Mustard is bad enough but is anybody else in North York plagued with tent caterpillars? Every apple tree (five) on my property is infested with the Gypsy Moth larvae. Mississauga is spraying but I've heard nothing about that occuring anywhere else. Do birds eat these? Although the ground has several larva crawling around, the Robins tend to prefer earthworms.

[Craig McL]

Hi Loyd

the only bird I have ever seen and or heard of that eats tent caterpillars is black and Yellow Billed Cuckoo.

good luck !!

Craig McLauchlan

[Pat Hodgson]

FYI tent caterpillars and gypsy moth are not the same thing!  The former is a native species that can be a pain but rarely causes all that much lasting damage, whereas the latter is an exotic that can have major outbreaks, defoliating and possibly killing large numbers of trees.
There are many web sites about both, here are two:
tent caterpillars
gypsy moth

As to the cuckoos eating tent caterpillars, I have heard that story but never actually seen it.  When I see lots of tent caterpillars, I always think, great, there will be cuckoos here - but it has never panned out.[/url]

[norman]

Ten years ago it was purple loosestrife extirpating most of our amphibians, for starters ... while efforts to contain this new invader are well-intentioned, I'm afraid we're going to have to live with it ... it's occupying an unused niche, and some native species may not be able to compete.

It's a biennial, so removing the first-year crown is advisable, but it will not be stopped until the carrying capacity of the invaded areas is exhausted.

P.S. It's quite toothsome in salads and stews. That's how it got here -- darn settlers ...

NB

[Ron Luft]

GM sets up in the late fall with a new set of leaves that sprout in fall and over winter beneath the snow and are ready to explode as soon as snow is gone giving it a big leg up. Try weeding the young plants in Nov/Dec.  As far as other invasives go there are many efforts to control some of them that seem to be working. Purple Loosestrife is effectively predated upon by a beetle introduced after exhaustive study at UofGuelph. Loosestrife plants in High Park are now not nearly as tall or as robust and seed productive as once they were. Irradiction may not be a reality but control by various methods should not be overlooked. Much more injurious to your garden is/will be DSV. Dog Strangling Vine; Black SwallowWart. Learn it, seek it, destroy it.