State Using Wasps To Fend Off Invasive Beetle

Colleen Teerling, a state entomologist, is traveling throughout Southern and Central Maine to teach people how to use one insect to detect the presence of another.

The Cerceris Wasp is found throughout North America and hunts beetles, paralyzing them with its stinger and bringing them back to its nest to leave as food for its offspring.

Officials and volunteers are monitoring the beetles the wasps bring back to look for an invasive beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer, which is spreading rapidly into the Northeast. The Emeral Ash Borer threatens to wipe out every species of ash tree on the continent. The new program is a promising first line of defense to detect an insect that threatens our forests.

The science behind this program is so new in fact, the Canadian researcher who discovered it, a college graduate student, defended his findings just this year. He wanted to spread the word about the wasps to give communities a chance at finding and fighting off the Emerald Ash Borer.