Tag: ladybugs

  • Meeting Minutes: June 7, 2016

    Meeting Minutes: June 7, 2016

    Next Meeting: Tuesday September 6, 2016 at 7:30 Present were four representative from the DCR: Erica Aubin (Hemlock Gorge Site Supervisor), Lisa Barstow (DCR Director of Community Relations), Ken Gooch (DCR Forest Health Program Director) and Marti Rudi (DCR Boston Regional District Manager); also present were Friends’ President Brian Yates, Bob Burke, Jean Fisher, Evan…

  • Adelgid Articles: 2009

    March, 2009 The March, 2009 issue of Science Daily has a new story about the impending doom of the hemlocks in the lower Appalachian region and its dire consequences for the surrounding ecosystems. It also has further links to older stories about anti-hemlock fungi and the Japanese Beetles that we have used at Hemlock Gorge.…

  • Adelgid Updates: October 1, 2009

    An informal and unscientific survey by several members of the Friends walking through the park recently suggests that about a third of the trees are now dead and another third show signs of severe disease. There was no sign of ladybugs, nor has there been for years.

  • Charlie Burnham Report: November, 2008

    DCR Forester Charlie Burnham visited Hemlock Gorge in November, 2008. Here are his reports to the Friends: I went to the gorge to evaluate it as a possible release site for a different predatory beetle, Laricobius nigrinus. I noticed that the hemlocks were in two very different states of health which I can’t explain. Some…

  • Report on the Adelgids and Ladybugs in Hemlock Gorge

    Final Report Pseudoscymnus tsugae Release Hemlock Gorge 2001-2005 Background: The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) (formerly the Department of Environmental Management) was approached by the Friends of Hemlock Gorge regarding the possible release of the predatory ladybird beetle (Pseudoscymnus tsugae) for the control of an infestation of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) (Adelges tsugae) at…

  • Hopeful Adelgid News: The Ladybugs may be having an effect

    Hopeful Adelgid News: The Ladybugs may be having an effect

    It’s been more than a year since the release of the first ladybugs. We still don’t have an official opinion from forester Charlie Burnham on their impact. but at the August picnic, we all toured the site and inspected the hemlocks. What we saw made us cautiously optimistic. Although several trees have died, and evidence…

  • 2001 Ladybug Release

    2001 Ladybug Release

    May 2, 2001 The long struggle to save the trees in Hemlock Gorge reached a turning point at 2:30 on Wednesday, May 2, 2001. At that time Massachusetts state forester Charlie Burnham and site supervisor Kevin Hollenbeck released the first of 10,000 ladybugs grown during the winter to combat the Woolly Adelgid. The insects, black,…

  • Adelgid Good News Flash

    Hemlock Gorge site supervisor Kevin Hollenbeck has just announced that the ladybugs grown during the winter to combat the Woolly Adelgid will be released in the reservation during the afternoon of Wednesday, May 2. A more exact time has not been announced, but may be obtained at the Friends’ regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May…

  • About our Ladybugs

    About our Ladybugs

    The National Association of Conservation Districts published an encouraging note (June 1998) on the use of the ladybugs to control the adelgid. Additional information is in the Minutes of our November 1998 Meeting. Use of the ladybugs was also reviewed at hearings held by State Senator Stephen Brewer last fall in Gardner, MA.

  • About Adelgids (2000)

    The status of control efforts and debate since approval of the legislation are well summarized in a news story provided by the Massachusetts State House News Service. Click here to read that story. See our August, 2000 Woolly Adelgid Page for more information about the pest and our plan of action using the ladybug that…

  • Adelgid Update: December, 2000

    On November 9, 2000, the Metropolitan District Commission voted to approve an interagency Service Agreement with the Department of Environmental Management to grow the ladybugs that are the natural predators of the hemlock woolly adelgids that are killing the reservation. Dr. Charles Burnham of DEM has made arrangements to grow up a stock of ladybugs…

  • State House News: JAPANESE LADYBUGS FLY TO THE RESCUE OF BELEAGUERED HEMLOCK FORESTS

    State House News: JAPANESE LADYBUGS FLY TO THE RESCUE OF BELEAGUERED HEMLOCK FORESTS

    Reprinted with the permission of the author. By Elisabeth J. BeardsleySTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE, [email protected] STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 12, 2000 The Bay State’s official bug could soon wing to the rescue of one of the state’s favorite native trees. Under a $60,000 pilot program included in this year’s budget, an army of Japanese ladybugs…