A beetle the size of a single grain of rice is the latest best hope for hemlocks in the Southeast that have been felled by the millions by an invasive bug.
The beetle eats only one thing: the hemlock woolly adelgid (uh-DEL-jid), and it does so voraciously.
Researchers are hopeful this new beetle will be a worthy adversary, based on releases of the beetles at sites in Virginia and West Virginia. Like the adelgid, the beetle is native to Japan, and they’re adapting to their new surroundings.
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