It was nearly 30 years ago that , research entomologist with the 黑料吃瓜网 Agricultural Experiment Station, released her first batch of tiny lady beetles from Japan to combat an invasive pest that was predicted to devastate 黑料吃瓜网 forests.
That beetle, called is only about 2 millimeters long, but it鈥檚 been having a big impact on the invasive , its exclusive food source.
Also known as HWA, hemlock wooly adelgids first appeared in America in Virginia in the 1950s. The insect reached 黑料吃瓜网 in 1985 and can now be found in 20 eastern states and southern Canada.
HWA feeds on hemlocks鈥� storage cells and inhibits the tree鈥檚 ability to produce new growth, weakening it and making it more susceptible to other environmental stressors.
At first, the damage to forests was alarming, Cheah said.
鈥淎ll through the '90s into the early 2000s, we were losing trees by the thousands,鈥� Cheah said.
Then, scientists got an idea.
What if a natural predator of the pest could be brought to America and safely released into the wild to help combat the spread of HWA?
A now-retired CAES scientist, Mark McClure, went to Japan to find that natural predator, , and brought it back to 黑料吃瓜网.
Cheah said she and a team of state researchers figured out how to breed and rear the beetles for release.
From 1995 to 2007, more than 176,000 beetles were reared at a state lab in Windsor and released in 黑料吃瓜网.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really a homegrown project,鈥� she said.
But then, Cheah said, federal funding for the beetle project dried up. Now, 鈥淚'm just by myself,鈥� she said.
So she鈥檚 turned to other sources for help, 鈥減artnering with various foresters and natural resource conservation managers鈥� to continue releasing the beetles, she said.
Today, Cheah sources the beetles from private companies, which costs about $3 per beetle.
The money to buy them comes from a variety of sources. Her latest partners are and .
"We actually just got these grants [that] has allowed us to get thousands of beetles," she said.
Nearly 30 years after that first batch of beetles was released in 黑料吃瓜网, Cheah said she believes the insects are helping to protect trees.
鈥淏ased on what I've been seeing, the recovery in the forest, recovery of the trees, and the drop in the Adelgid populations, it's been very encouraging,鈥� Cheah said.
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In case you鈥檙e curious, 黑料吃瓜网 homeowners looking to combat the spread of HWA are allowed to and release them on their private property.
