Cornell will house $1.2 million lab to fight hemlock-killing bug
New York state and Cornell University will set up a lab to combat the hemlock wooly adelgid, a tiny bug that can kill hemlock trees.(Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station)
By Glenn Coin | gcoin@syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. -- A new lab to fight a hemlock-killing bug will be established at Cornell University.
Cornell and the state Department of Environmental Conservation today announced the creation of the $1.2 million laboratory to find ways to fight the hemlock wooly adelgid, a tiny insect that can kill towering hemlock trees.
Since being discovered in New York in 1985, the hemlock wooly adelgid has spread to at least half of the state's 62 counties.
The lab will research biological controls to help stem the spread of the adelgid, which is now in half of New York's 62 counties. It was found in the Adirondacks this year for the first time, and has also been found in the watershed of Skaneateles Lake, the unfiltered source of Syracuse's drinking water.
"Preventing the spread of invasive species is the most effective way to fight and address the damage these species can cause to our natural resources," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos in a news release.
The state will contribute $500,000 of the lab's cost, the release said.
The adelgid (pronounced uh-dell-jid) is about the size of a ballpoint pen tip. It sucks sap from the twigs of hemlock trees and lays its eggs in a fuzz-covered wax that sticks to the bottom of the needles. Hemlocks die in four to 10 years after infestation, the DEC said.
The adelgid is native to eastern Asia and arrived in Virginia in the 1950s. Free from natural predators on the East Coast and adaptable to a wide range of climates, the insect has made its way steadily northward. It was first spotted in the Hudson Valley in the mid-1980s.
Hemlocks make up 10 percent of all Adirondack forest trees