HOUGHTON, Mich., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A team of Michigan Tech University faculty recently turned back a pretty but intrusive invader: the purple loosestrife.

The loosestrife, a perennial wetland plant known for its heartiness and stability, was taking over a pond near the campus.

But a specific beetle, Galerucella calmariensis, whose natural predator is the ladybug, has been found to have great success in controlling purple loosestrife invasions.

So faculty from the school's Forest Research and Environmental Science visited researchers at Michigan State University and came back with 20 pots of purple loosestrife stumps on which 50 to 100 beetles were living.

Ten pots of beetles were released at the Houghton High School pond and 10 were released along the Pike River Bridge, where there was also a purple loosestrife problem.

"We released the beetles in the summer of 1998, and by 2002 only one purple loosestrife plant could be found near the Houghton High School pond," said researcher Leah Vucetich, according to Science Daily. "Biological controls are fairly controversial, and the outcome is not always certain."

But in this case, "the beetles had a dramatic effect and worked great at the pond."