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Digger wasps used for early detection for beetles - Emerald Ash Borer - Part Two
Going Green
Going Green: Digger wasps used for early detection for beetles
Researchers are using the solitary digger wasp as an early warning system for a beetle that kills ash trees. The emerald ash borer was recently discovered in Randolph, N.Y. so monitoring sites are being developed across the state.
“I've found about ten sites and I've put together a network of volunteers to find other sites around the state,” said Warren Hellman, SUNY ESF graduate student.
So Far, Warren Hellman has a site in the Pine Barrens in Albany, one in Saratoga Springs, several spots in the St. Lawrence River valley and this one in Central New York. But he needs sites and volunteers in Western New York and the Southern Tier.
“We know where they'll be the following year, if we can find them (the wasp nests) this year; we know they'll be in the exact same place the next year,” said Hellman.
The digger wasp hunts a single family of beetles, like these metallic wood borers.
Use these plastic traps, they collect the beetles harvested by the wasps. If emerald ash borers move into the area, the wasps will collect them too.
“These monitoring sites (the wasp colonies) help us identify populations if there happens to be one in the territory where the wasps gather food and we can also delineate a population once it's identified, when you find infested ash trees we can bring in a mobile colony,” said Dr. Melissa Fierke, SUNY-ESF.
Use the wasps to define the boundaries of the infestation, and then act to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer.
“If we can slow the spread enough maybe scientists will figure out how to control the emerald ash borer, that's the best we have to offer right now,” said Fierke.
