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A group of Canadian researchers say they have, for the first time, successfully raised wasps that will be used this summer as a weapon against an insect that is ravaging forests.

Natural Resources Canada decided to rear their own wasps, named Tetrastichus planipennisi, to increase their number in an escalating battle with the destructive emerald ash borer beetle that has killed millions of ash trees in Canada and the U.S.

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Since 2013, the federal organization had been importing the wasps from their counterparts at the United States Forest Service in Brighton, Mich., and releasing them in 12 areas in Ontario and Quebec, said Krista Ryall, the lead researcher on the project.

“We’re hoping to raise about 10,000 for this summer,” Ryall said. “That will be enough to do five or six more sites across Ontario and Quebec.”

The wasps are part of a “bio-control” program out of a laboratory in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. — and the only “large scale attempt to manage the emerald ash borer,” Ryall said.