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Letter from Mike (6/24/20)

Dear Hicks Lake Resident-

 Wow, the summer is already flying by.  Can’t believe it’s almost the 4th of July.

 Good news about the Weevils.  They have been planted for this year already!  Enviroscience called me a couple of weeks ago and said they had a cancellation and wondered if we could take the weevils that were supposed to go to another lake and have them planted a little early.  I said sure and they went in about 2 weeks ago.  (We got extra units for our “inconvenience.”)  Thanks go out to my son-in-law Chad for taking time to make a special trip from Manistee and accommodate the Enviroscience folks.  They were planted on the 4th of June.  Another cloudy and rainy day (for the third year in a row.)   Two sites were planted.  One just north of the boat landing and another on the far north end of the lake.  Both areas have been marked with buoys.

We had another fantastic response to our contribution request for the project this year.  I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me right now (I’m on the road working at this moment,) but we made our goal of $5000 and a little extra again for mailings next spring.  Details on the finances to follow at a later date.

 All of us have wondered if this process is working and how we can tell.  First off, I was talking with Hicks Lake resident Randy Hackett a few weeks ago and he mentioned that he found 2 adults on his pontoon cover this spring.  They were most likely emerging from their wintering over spot and getting ready to return to the water.  Randy had his pontoon over by the boat launch on the north end of the lake so we can infer that they are migrating around as we hadn’t planted any in that area yet.

 Also, during the planting a couple of weeks ago, Chad got one of the biologists from Enviroscience to search for a milfoil plant from our lake that had weevils in it.  They were about to plant units on the far north shore of the lake.  The biologist swam around for less than 2 minutes and came up with a plant from our lake that had milfoil weevils in it.  This was before they put the new weevils in.  So these were weevils that made it from one of our plantings in previous years.  To say the least, this was very encouraging.  Chad filmed the biologist talking about the weevils that she had found and how to identify a milfoil plant that was inhabited by weevils.  Look for the video to appear on the Hicks Lake website soon.  Thanks again Chad.

That’s all I have about the weevils for now.  

Please read the next email that I will be sending regarding another weed control method (for other weeds,) that appears to have some strong merits.

 Hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th.
Mike Ritzer
Hicks Lake Resident

Milfoil Hotspots and Treatment in Lakes Cadillac and Mitchel in the Cadillac News

Fluridone Article in the Cadillac News

Watershed Protection Case Study

LakeAdvise Survey 2007

Milfoil discussed in Cadillac Evening News

2007 Eurasian Milfoil Lakes in Michigan

Hicks Lake Weed Map

Aquatic vegetation Survey 28-July-2005 for Hicks Lake

DEQ Aquatic Plant Survey for Hicks Lake

Weevil Articles in the Cadillac News 21-July-2007

Managing Shoreline Property to Protect Water Quality

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