Meet the B.C. beetles on a cross-country mission to save Nova Scotia's hemlocks

When a tiny black beetle crawled out of a small white jar and onto the branches of a majestic Nova Scotia hemlock, it was a big moment — a potential solution to a huge problem. 

"We think they're probably our best bet," said Lucas Roscoe, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. 

The beetles — officially Laricobius nigrinus — have been shipped across the country from their native British Columbia in a race against time to try to control the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive species killing Nova Scotia's hemlock trees — some of which are hundreds of years old. 

The beetles are coming to Nova Scotia as part of a new research program to see how effective they are in containing the invasive insects, and whether they are hardy enough to survive the East Coast winter and establish their own population there. Several federal and provincial agencies in both Nova Scotia and B.C. are involved in the project.

This is the first shipment of beetles to arrive, with another batch set to make the trip next fall.

The hemlock woolly adelgid, named for the white substance it leaves on branches, has a straw-like appendage in its mouth that allows it to suck nutrients out of trees, literally sucking the life out of them.

The invasive insects have already killed large swaths of hemlocks in the province. If they are allowed to continue unabated, it is expected 90 per cent of all Nova Scotia hemlocks will die within 10 to 15 years. 

The hemlock woolly adelgid was first spotted in southern Nova Scotia in 2017 but has been rapidly moving north, and can now be found on nearly every tree in Kejimkujik National Park, about 160 kilometres west of Halifax. Hemlocks make up nine per cent of the park's trees, which equates to thousands.  

It is already creeping into Ontario and is expected to spread into New Brunswick and Quebec. It can also be found on the West Coast, but the beetles there keep it from killing the trees.

However, those beetles don't naturally exist in Nova Scotia. 

Researchers in B.C. are collecting the predators by shaking them out of trees, then shipping them across the country. 

"It's a great idea," said Gwylim Blackburn, a research scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre, during an interview in Victoria. 

"Biological control, if it's carefully designed, can be very effective, simply because the beetles themselves find hemlock woolly adelgid prey better than any of us can." 

About 3,600 beetles have arrived in Nova Scotia in the past two weeks, and when they were released at Kejimkujik, some immediately started eating the insects.