Natural Areas participating in study to try and save hemlocks

Cornell Plantations continues working towards the control of hemlock woolly adelgids by providing the use of our Natural Areas for research into more effective control.  In October, 2009, researchers Mark Whitmore from Cornell University and Dave Mausel from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst introduced a biocontrol agent as part of a 10 year study sponsored by the US Forest Service.  Three hundred individuals of Laricobius nigrinus, a predatory beetle native to the northwestern united states, were released to study the ability of a new inland biotype to successfully overwinter and feed on all life stages of hemlock wooly adelgids.  To read more, see the Cornell Chronicle and the Ithaca Journal, for stories about the research.  For more information on the hemlock woolly adelgid and Cornell Plantations' efforts, click here.

Pictured is Mark Whitmore depositing Laricobius nigrinus on a hemlock tree infested with hemlock wooly adelgids, Oct. 29, 2009.  Photo by Todd Bittner