MALVERN Hills Conservators are confident of winning the battle against a weed that could devastate the breeding ground of three species of newt, despite problems caused by recent wet weather.

Officers are treating Berrow Down pond, on Castlemorton Common, with a weedkiller to try and rid it of Crassula helmsii, an invasive plant introduced from New Zealand that stifles other life.

It is unusual to find three species of newt - great crested, palmate and smooth - in the same place but the Castlemorton pond is home to all three.

They are currently being kept away with plastic sheeting, while officers try and kill off the weed.

The treatment is easier to administer when the water level is low but wet weather has meant the Conservators have had to dig a drainage ditch to lower it artificially.

The run-off from the pond has had to be carefully watched to make sure none of the plants - a particularly virulent variety introduced to this country as an oxygenator and for decoration - escapes to neighbouring ponds, where the newts are thought to be currently sheltering. A small piece carried from one pond to another can quickly take hold, smothering other water plants and eventually newts and other amphibians.

"It's working at the moment but there's so much of the stuff there we'll have to do more treatments over the summer," said conservation officer David Whitehorne.

"We'll hopefully finish the pond at the end of the summer and then we'll remove the barrier. We need to finish it this summer, if we can, because we've got a licence from English Nature to carry out the work. We'll try our best, although it's very difficult to predict."

The newts will go into hibernation for the autumn, emerging early next year to breed in Berrow Down pond.