and as far as I can tell the authorities are losing the battle against this pest. The Brazilian Pepper is just as bad. They are both spreading faster than they can eliminate it. Fortunately, the Australian Pine is slow-growing, and it looks like they turned the corner with that one, although it may be a century before its finally eliminated. Too bad, they give a wonderful shade and make a lovely sound in the breeze, and can live in very salty sand right by the ocean. That's why they were introduced here. The problem is the shed needles are toxic to plant life and nothing else will take root near them.

Unless they can come up with some biological control for it, an insect that eats it, or a disease that attacks it, and which is no threat to anything else, I'm afraid its going to win. A targeted chemical like you posit would certainly be ideal. If you can invent one I guarantee you will become a very rich man.

It's easy to say "Why don't they just cut the Melaleuca down, or burn it off?" But until you drive through some of the vast areas infested by it, you simply cannot imagine what a problem this is. You can destroy a huge stand, but if you miss even one, in a few years they are back. To use a medical term, it has metastasized.

It doesn't just occur in forests, there are also isolated trees and small stands everywhere, from the middle of town to out in the boonies. You can't find them all, much less go to where they are and destroy them. and any one can be a new vector for infection.