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Emerald Ash Borers who have chosen to lay eggs at Ki Chi Saga County Park may soon be regretting that decision.  The park was recently populated with a special species of wasp, or parasitoid, purposefully bred and raised to be released as an EAB larva predator.

County Parks Director Joe Tart said he was told about 1,000 wasps were released in the park recently and all of the parks staff have their fingers crossed for success.  The county wants to avoid loss of ash trees from the highly destructive Emerald Ash Borers, plus not having removal and cleanup costs.  

Ki Chi Saga, south of Lindstrom,  has multiple hundreds of tree specimens but due to the percentage of ash trees to other vegetation in the immediate terrain, the MN Department of Agriculture selected Chisago County to be a wasp release location.

Angie Ambourn, entomologist and pest detection/export certification supervisor, told the Press that currently no other parks in Chisago County are under consideration. The ag department looks to establish one site per county for the wasp habitat.  In the case of Ki Chi Saga Park there were enough ash trees in the area and enough EAB present to sustain a wasp parasitoid population.

“We typically release in a location for two years  and then if we have enough staff and funding we go back and evaluate the sites to see if the wasps have established.

“Our insect biological control coordinator reaches out to the entity  in charge to obtain the necessary permissions or permits,” she concluded.

Ki Chi Saga visitors can feel comfortable with a wasp population like what the state is releasing. These are not attracted to humans and are stinger-less and  gnat-sized.   They devour ash borer larvae.

This method of biocontrol has been in use since 2009.

Ambourn explained the wasp releases in Minnesota are a cooperative project between the Dept. of Ag and the United State Dept of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service.  The USDA provides the wasps and the Minnesota Dept of Agriculture completes the on-the-ground implementation.

Tart also mentioned he spoke with other parks directors utilizing the parasitoids and he was advised it is a good program.

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