October 27, 2009 Vermont imports Idaho beetles to save hemlocks

WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) - Several hundred tiny beetles will be released into a southern Vermont forest this week in hopes of combatting a pest that is preying on hemlocks.

The Brattleboro forest is infested with hemlock woolly adelgid, an Asian insect that damages hemlocks by sucking sap from their twigs.

Officials say the beetle, Laricobius nigrinus, which was collected in Idaho, preys on hemlock woolly adelgid and already has been released in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York.

The Vermont release is part of a University of Massachusetts research project to see if the beetle survives the winter and reproduces.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)