BUFFALO, N.Y. — Scientists and researchers are launching a battle against an invasive species that threatens the well being of a tree that is important to the region's ecosystem.
They're hoping the best defense against this predator ... is another predator.
In what might be viewed as a classic case of "she swallowed the spider to catch the fly," New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell University researchers set out in the woods of the Zoar Valley on Thursday as part of Hemlock Initiative, to release 1,700 Laricobius beetles.
"We call it Little Larry for short," said Nicholas Dietschler, a research support specialist with the project.
The quarry of the "Little Larrys" is the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid.
Native to Asia, these aphid-like insects attack North American Hemlocks, feeding at the base of the needle.
"This causes a slow decline of the trees over the years and actually leads to the eventual mortality of the Eastern Hemlock here on the east coast," said Dietschler, who noted the importance of those conifer trees in providing winter cover to birds and animals, and protection against rapid snowmelt in the spring.
"When we lose the hemlock eco system, we're losing those different services the trees provide not only to people but all of that wildlife as well," he said.
Losing the hemlocks would also be devastating in that they represent the fourth most populous tree in the state.
The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid is small, only about as thick as a grain of rice, and though often hard to see they leave a white woolly mass on the underside of branches at the base of the needles.
The Laricobius beetles find them, however, to scrumptious.
"We'll deploy these in the forest and then the beetles later today will go ahead and start eating the adelgins," Dietschler said.
According to the DEC The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid has been slowly making its way toward Western new York since first being observed in Virginia in 1951 after an accidental introduction from Japan.
Warnings about their potential impact in our region have been made for several years, including an edition of WGRZ's 2 The Outdoors program in 2014, where Mark Whitmore, director of the Hemlock Initiative, warned the pest could devastate "a very large portion of the hemlocks in this area in the next 10 to 20 years."
"There are places in New York that are un-infested, but it is spreading northward into colder ports of New York and into Canada," Dietschler said.