Ash Borer Infestation

Intro The emerald ash borer is an invasive wood boring insect that originated in Asia. The borer is believed to have crossed the Canadian and American border in the early 2000s by way of Windsor and Detroit (1). They have now infested much of Southern Ontario, as well as, in small parts of western Quebec (2). Emerald ash borers destroy ash trees by eating all the ash species in Ontario which include green, red, white, black, and ash trees. When beetles eat ash trees, they leave 4-5 millimeter holes in the bark of ash trees, shallow tunnel underneath the bark, and epicormic shoots (1). This can also result in wilted foliage, yellow leaves, the death of ash trees. The infestation in North America has destroyed in the tens of millions of ash
As art of a bio-control program, Canadian researchers have been bred a type of parasitic wasp called Tetrastichus planipennisithat will help to kill emerald ash borer and help to stop the spread of the invasive species. The wasp species is a non-invasive alternative to pesticides, and does not affect people. It is currently being used in the United States and has been extremely helpful component of their efforts to stop the emerald ash borer. The Canadian government has used parasitic wasps since 2013, however, they have had to import the wasps from the United States. 60,000 wasps have been used in 12 areas in Ontario and Quebec. Using the wasps raised in Canada, the plan for this summer are to have 10,000 wasps that can be utilized in five to six new locations. The wasps work by laying their many eggs in emerald ash borer larvae, those offspring, then use the emerald ash borer for food. The offspring then can fly out and lay their eggs, effectively destroying the population of emerald ash borer, as well as, increasing the population of wasps. Overall, the article believes that these wasps will be effective as long as researchers and the government are able to breed enough of the
First, Canadian researchers from Sault Ste. Marie have successfully bred parasitic wasps that are part of an effort to stop the infestation. Canadian researchers from the CFS combined with American researchers have also create a trap and bait system to capture and stop the emerald ash borer (2). Even if these solutions work, the federal and provincial governments of Canada still have a major problem; Replacing millions of trees is a lot of work and requires a signiciant amount of money. To help with reforestation or possibly help to slow the emerald ash borer, researchers in Michigan are working to find the emerald ash broer resistant gene that Asian ash trees have, and try to find other ash species to cross breed this with to create an emerald ash borer non-invasive ash tree species. Researchers in Canada are adding to this by working with blue ash that appear to be more resistant to emerald ash borer (13). Overall, there is much research being done surrounding the emerald ash borer, and the government is aiding with a large share, which shows promise in the field of biological research and attempting to stop the emerald ash