“Corruption, it’s like an invasive species,” said Tongate. “It spreads really fast, it’s hard to get rid of, and it forms a kind of a monoculture.”

Further complicating matters, the carrizo cane program, which changed its name in 2025 to the Rio Grande Vegetative Management Program (“eradication is a high bar,” said Tongate) often finds itself at odds with the other two actors involved in Arundo control along the Rio Grande: Border Patrol and USDA. Both of those agencies have funded work that has helped the biological control wasps flourish.

“If anything, I’d say our programs are competitive,” said Tongate. “Land that’s signed up for the carrizo wasps or the Arundo scale are not willing to participate in our stuff, because the idea is that if we kill the cane with our chemical, they don’t have anything to eat.”