Tiny Asian bug destroying La. marsh cane at alarming rate

A tiny insect, barely visible to the naked eye, is killing marsh cane at an alarming rate and threatening to undo nearly a decade of coastal restoration and land-building in the delicate Mississippi River delta. The Roseau cane mealy bug, also known as a Phragmites scale, was first discovered on some of the marsh reeds of Plaquemines Parish last summer. It was the first time the parasite native to Japan and China had ever made it into the United States.Scientists began tracking the bug’s destructive effects in March and are shocked by how quickly it’s spreading – not only eating away at the cane reeds where it was first reported last Fall, in the iconic bird’s foot delta at the mouth of the Mississippi, but now appearing in marshes as far west as Lafourche Parish and as far north as Lafitte in Jefferson Parish.Between March and May, the bug laid waste to 5.5 miles of Roseau cane that form the banks of South Pass. That’s led to fears that a principal navigation channel could be lost if officials can’t come up with a plan to protect the Roseau cane. The infestation is spreading so quickly that scientists from Louisiana State University, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and several federal agencies can’t get a handle on how much land has been lost or how to combat the mealy bug, but they believe 100,000 acres of marsh could be endangered by it.