The LSU AgCenter and the U.S. Forest Service plan to release hundreds of tiny, nonnative wasps Tuesday in north Louisiana. It’s the second such release of the parasitoid wasp in an ongoing effort to contain damage from an invasive beetle killing native ash trees across the U.S.
The emerald ash borer was found in Michigan more than a decade ago. The beetles reached south Arkansas and north Louisiana this year. LSU AgCenter entomologist Rodrigo Diaz is in charge of biocontrol programs statewide. He says the wasps are released at two sites near Shongaloo and Minden in Webster Parish.
“We basically went to the field and located infested trees. Then, we opened the containers and let these parasitoids free next to the trees that were infested. They immediately start looking for trees because that is where their prey is,” Diaz said, who gets the wasps from a rearing colony in Michigan.
These ash trees play an important role in bottomland ecosystems and also have an economic value to the timber industry. Some insecticides can kill the emerald ash borer and save a homeowner’s ash tree. But that type of control, Diaz says, is not practical on the scale of a forest.
From Red River Radio: https://redriverradio.org/post/entomologists-release-wasps-shongaloo-and-minden-prey-invasive-beetle-killing-ash-trees