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Little beetles take on big battle
NGCSU lab breeds bugs to battle insects destroying hemlock trees
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Visitors tour the Predator Beetle Lab on Sunday at North Georgia College & State University. Insect club member Tim Kennell, second from right, holds a Bess beetle for visitors to see. - photo by SHANNAN FINKE
It’s tough to be a bug, especially if your job is to eat away an invasive exotic species killing off trees across the country. But that’s the role of three beetle species being bred in the Predator Beetle Lab at North Georgia College & State University. At an open house Sunday, lab manager Amanda Newton gave tours showing how the lab-raised beetles are helping to combat the hemlock woolly adelgid, an insect brought to the United States from Asia that now eats and destroys Eastern hemlock trees.