Ditto D-Day in the New Jersey outdoors. Every tree in the state has been infested to some degree, and the pest has slaughtered whole stands of the stately evergreen trees in scenic venues formerly noted for their hemlock groves, such as Sparta Glen and Lake Hopatcong's Halsey Island. Without some remedy, over 40 percent of New Jersey's 26,000 acres of hemlocks are doomed, said George Koeck, a regional forester with the state Forest Service. Also called cottony scale for the visible white wax they produce to cover their eggs, the microscopic adelgids feed on the stored food reserves at the base of a hemlock's needles and eventually starve the trees to death.
Branches desiccate, turn a grayish-green and then drop from the tree, sometimes within a few months.
Most buds are also killed, so little if any new growth is produced on infested branches. Heavily infested trees may succumb within four years, but some survive longer with only a sparse amount of foliage at the very top of the crown. There's just no way to get to trees more than several hundred feet from a road to spray. Spread in stands of Nutmeg State hemlocks, the tiny members of the lady bug family have killed 40 percent to 70 percent of adelgids in inoculated trees, said Mark Mayer, supervising entomologist with the Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Laboratory. Given 100 of the creatures by McClure in January of last year, the Ewing facility has succeeded in raising over 50,000 others.