Meetup.com Invasive Species Hunters Group

     On October first I started the "Orlando Exotic and Invasive Species Hunters Group" on Meetup.com. The above plant is Cesar's Weed (Urena lobata). It is a very invasive plant and the main focus of this group.
     Our specialty is "manual control" which means removing invasive plants by hand rather than spraying chemicals.

Meeting one
10/3/12
     Heading out by myelf I entered our main base of operations, Jay Blanchard Park in East Orlando, Florida. I've been a volunteer here for over 17 years, picking up litter and fighting exotic/invasive plants. Today I took out 100 Cesar Weeds (leaf shown above), 275 Air Potatoes and a pile of Air Potatoe vines without roots and a patch of Japanese Climbing Vines.

Meeting Two
10/10/12
     Returning to Blanchard Park I took out 100 Cesar Weeds, 1 Small Chinese Tallow Tree, 1 South American Ear Tree and 14 Cuban Anole Lizards.

Meeting Three
10/17/12
    I schedule my environmental trip in late afternoon. This is to avoid the hot Florida sun and so myself and my volunteers are at a less risk of getting skin cancer. Today I took out 211 Cesar Weeds and 1 Cuban Anole Lizard. Today I was joined by one female volunteer who I met at the Wildlife Hospital I volunteer at.

Meeting Four
10/19/12
     In an odd twist of events my one volunteer went back to Blanchard without me and took out 450 Cesar Weeds.

Meeting Five
10/20/12
     We moved location and went to the Campus of UCF for a night hunt. But conditions turned out to be very dry, cool and out collection low. The two of us walked around for about an hour searching buildings. We got 7 Cuban Anole Lizards and one Green House Frog. This was the first time I was able to identify a invasive Green House Frog so this was a good day of learning for me.
     I was able to show my volunteer what a invasive Pleco/Sailfin/Armoured Catfish is. There is a small pond on the campus with two of them in it.

Meeting Six
10/24/12
     By myself I headed out into Blanchard Park. I took out 107 Cesar Weeds, 10 Water Lettuce plants and I girdled on huge Chinese Tallow Tree, see above picture. Hopefully this will slow it's growth if not kill it below the cut. I think to kill it I may need to poison it too. This tree has millions of seeds on it, but by next year it will be dead and I'll collect EVERY baby it drops.