Kyle Secours, 7, wins Hudson ragweed contest with 140 kg haul

A 7-year old boyscout namedKyle Secourshas wonHudson's contest for eradicating ragweed from its territory.

Kyle took the top prize by hauling in 306 pounds (about 140 kilograms) of ragweed with a little help from his friends.

• Ragweed season in southern Quebec back with a vengeance

"It filled seven big bags and 20 little ones," Kyletold CBC's Homerun. "I got twocubsand sevenscouts to help."

The contest was the town's innovative way to reduce the presence of the allergy-causing weed.

The Montreal suburb, across the river from Oka,launched the contest in late August and offered the prize in both units five cents for a pound of ragweed, or 10 cents for a kilogram.

Kyle haul won him $15.30 plus another $100 prize for the biggest bounty.

In all, the programcost Hudson $23.60.

"That's one of the strengths in Hudson. People tend to jump in community initiatives," said JuliaSchroeder, who put in $100 of her own money for the grand prize.

Hudson has a policy against the use of pesticides, so it needed to find another way to kill ragweed after residents started complaining about allergies, Schroeder said. And it worked better than she expected.

We're calling on other municipalities to try and best us.- Julia Schroeder, Hudson parks and recreation

"The educational aspect was great. We had a lot of people calling in to ask what it looks like," she said.

The town will repeat the contest next year, Schroeder said. "We're alsocalling on other municipalities to try and best us."