Blasting Weeds Away
By: Ray Doughty
Updated: July 21, 2011
Unusual new ways to control invasive weeds are being tested in Wyoming.
It involves paintball guns and pellets loaded with weed killer.
Researchers are testing out herbicide ballistic technology on invasive weeds near the Boysen Reservoir.
This means workers can treat individual plants with long-range accuracy.
"Nelson paint company is the company that created the paintball back in the 1960s, and this is a new evolution and a new use for the paintball, with a new modern technology that we're able to provide to the world, to reduce the use of pesticides," Nelson Paint Company president Rick Louys explains.
Invasive weeds like salt cedar cannot be consumed by animals, and can contribute to droughts.
The paintball gun will allow applicators to kill weeds in otherwise hard-to-reach areas.
Fremont County is the first area in the continental United States to test out the herbicide paintball gun.
Research is also being conducted in Hawaii.
