Experts released nearly 1,000 Chinese wasps into a Lake County Forest preserve on Thursday that they hope will show how to stop or at least slow the spread of the invasive emerald ash borer beetle.
The tiny wasps don’t look like the more familiar yellow jacket. The biggest is less half a centimeter long, and has no stinger. It seems more ant than wasp.
Employing the old proverb that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend,” county officials hope that these non-native bio-warriors will eat ash borer larva like they do in their native China, where the pest is kept in check.
“They die a horrible little death,” said John Lelito, who heads the Michigan lab that raises the wasps.
Above is taken from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-foresters-hope-tiny-wasp-can-fight-big-problem-the-emerald-ash-borer-beetle-20110929,0,5518097.story
