Beetles from B.C. settling in Nova Scotia, taking up the fight to rescue hemlocks – Halifax [Video]

The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.

Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.

Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, said that in the fight against the invasive woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle could survive a Nova Scotia winter.

They were released across six sites in Nova Scotia and Roscoe, along with other scientists, waited to see if the tiny black flying predators would live.

In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia. “Now, there is a caveat to that. It was a …