Crops
After two decades of study, USDA clears a mite to fight tumbleweeds across the Lower 48
APHIS will permit release of the 0.2-mm Eurasian mite Aceria salsolae against Russian thistle, which infests 100 million acres of the West, harbours beet leafhoppers, clogs canals and fuels wildfire; California's agriculture department says it will start rearing and releasing the mites immediately.