Skip to Main Content

A Hike Among Ash Trees

Center for Humans and Nature In October 2021 Dragonfly graduate Alisha Singleton takes a walk in the woods…to save the once-abundant Ash trees. Read about her work to combat the Emerald Ash Borer with...

A Hike Among Ash Trees

Center for Humans and Nature

In October 2021 Dragonfly graduate Alisha Singleton takes a walk in the woods…to save the once-abundant Ash trees. Read about her work to combat the Emerald Ash Borer with the parasitic wasp T. planipennisi in the Center’s City Creatures blog.

“To save the living giants, we hiked deeper into the forest to release a predator of emerald ash borers, one from their own native range within Asia. Only the size of a gnat compared to the near penny length of the borer, the non-stinging wasp Tetrastichus planipennisi pierces the bark of young ash trees to lay eggs on borer larvae. Her young live inside and feed on the borers as they develop, eventually putting an end to the life cycle.”