Last week, a UPS truck rolled up to an office of the Division of Forests and Lands. Its cargo? A cooler full of Asian wasps from a lab in Michigan.
Molly Heuss, who works on the state’s emerald ash borer program, cuts off the packing tape that holds the cooler shut to check out its contents.
“It says we’ve got 6,850 female Tetrastichus planipennisi,” she says.
New Hampshire is home to roughly 25 million ash trees. Two years ago, we learned the state is also home to a devastating invasive beetle – the emerald ash borer – which can completely destroy infested stands of ash trees in as little as six years.
Now state foresters are hoping that bringing the pest’s natural enemies over from Asia can save the Granite State’s ash trees.
These aren’t the wasps that build nests under your eaves and need to be sprayed from 60 feet away. There are three species that have been approved for release in the US. The largest around the size of a mosquito and the species being released in New Hampshire this year are about the size of a black fly. None of them actually have a stinger, and are called wasps simply because of the shape of their body.
“They do not sting people, They’re not interested in any of our native insects. They’re not interested in anyone’s puppies or cute animals,” says Huess.
For the full article, on New Hampshire Public Radio's website, click here.