Ash borer fight adds wasps
U.S. wants to unleash Asian beetle's parasitic predator to save trees
Chess or checkmate?
June 9, 2007
The federal government has spent more than $100 million in the last five years in its fight to stop the tree-eating emerald ash borer. The battle plan has been as simple as it has been ineffective - stop the beetle's ability to spread by destroying nearby stands of healthy ash trees.
The problem, basically, is that the flying, stealthy little critter has been infesting trees faster than the government can chop them down.
Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture is poised to launch a new front in the battle.
It wants to release three species of imported Chinese wasps this summer to eat the invading beetles, which already have been blamed for the death of 20 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
For the complete articleby JS Online :arrow:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=617306
