In many people’s minds, the weevil is associated with ravaged crops, ruined farmers and vast, forsaken fields, but New York City is about to unleash some 5,000 Asian weevils in several parks to attack a prolific vine that poses a threat to native plants and trees.

The beetles, each roughly the size of a sesame seed, are part of a broad strategy to combat the relentless mile-a-minute vine, which has invaded parks and forests from North Carolina to Massachusetts and as far west as Ohio.

Known scientifically as Rhinoncomimus latipes, the insects are considered biological control agents by invasive plant experts and are to be released at two places each in the Bronx and Queens and one on Staten Island.

The vines were first spotted in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx in 2006. “When we saw that mile-a-minute was growing there, we panicked,” said Katerli Bounds, the director of forest restoration for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation. The park, she said, contains one of the best examples of natural forest in the city.