Nasty bug invades Litchfield Republican American

A native Buprestid beetle captured by a Cerceris Wasp and sent to CT Ag. Exp. Station for identification.

Nasty bug invades Litchfield Republican American



We detected Emerald Ash Borer for the first time in Litchfield while utilizing Cerceris Wasp as a bio-surveillance tool.  John McKenna reported on the problem in the Sunday's (July 13, 2014) Waterbury Republican American newspaper.

The Wasps Are Out!

The Cerceris wasps are beginning to emerge at St. Anthony's Cemetery! We hope to begin monitoring these wasps during the first week of July, after the remainder of the individuals emerge.

One of the first wasp burrows of the year

Cerceris wasps are a native genus of stingless insects that hunt for beetles from the Buprestidae family.  After finding and stinging a beetle, these wasps bring the beetle back to their burrows.  The invasive emerald ash borer is one of the wasp's prey species, so groups across North America have found it helpful to monitor Cerceris colonies in order to detect the presence of this pest.  When a wasp returns to its burrow with its prey, we net it and identify it.  This way, we can determine if the wasps are catching any emerald ash borers in the area.

As part of a statewide effort to detect the emerald ash borer, White Memorial is monitoring the Cerceris colonies at St. Anthony's Cemetery, Wamogo High School, the Morris Town Beach, and Litchfield High School.

Claire Rutledge of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station is hosting a training session for volunteers who would like to help monitor the wasp colonies.  The session is scheduled for 11 AM on Tuesday, July 2 in the Ceder Room.

Cerceris Wasp Bio-Surveillance for Emerald Ash Borer -- 2012 Season Update

Although catching Cerceris Wasps can be challenging,
finding a Buprestid Beetle in the net is a great reward! 

We need your help!  The more people we have at each of the Cerceris colonies, the more beetles we catch!  That’s the secret to our success, so far.  Our goal is to collect 50 beetles at each colony so that we can assess the diversity of species now.  When Emerald Ash Borer colonizes the property, not only will we lose the ash trees but we will also see changes in the beetle population, too!  More importantly though, this project is really fun!  We need your help but don’t miss out on the fun.  


We finished Litchfield P.S. Plumb Hill Ball Field today with a total of 50 beetles, exactly!  On Tuesday there were 4 of us and we caught 25 beetles in two hours.  We finished this site in just a few days because we collected 50% of the goal in one day!


St. Anthony’s cemetery has 38 beetles so far, which means one more day’s worth of work will finish it off.  We’ve had one person at this colony by themselves for 3 days.  Those individuals caught 10 – 13 beetles each day.  We've almost finished with this colony!  Can you help us finish this colony tomorrow?  

Wamogo’s colony just woke up around Monday, but we have 13 beetles collected so far.  Three people caught 13 beetles in one day!  The pitcher’s mound is the place to be at Wamogo with over 20 nests.  Then there are the other nests in the rest of the diamond!  This site could be finished quickly with just a little bit of your help!

Morris Town Beach also woke up on Monday but we have not made it to that location yet, therefore no beetles have been collected at that site.  This colony is closest to some of our best ash stands on the property; therefore it is vital that this site not get put to the last colony for the season.  We can’t miss the big push.  We need you here!  

Please be part of this project.  As you can see if you want to part of the fun, you will need to be part of it before we finish the season without you.  

Contact me to let me know when and where you want to catch wasps and collect beetles.

A Perfect Day for Cerceris Wasp Training

Claire Rutledge, an entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) led the Cerceris Wasp Workshop on Thursday, June 28^th at White Memorial. Fifteen volunteers came to the training session to learn how the Cerceris fumipennis wasp can be utilized to survey native buprestid diversity. The wasps also act as an early detection device for other invasive buprestid such as the Emerald Ash Borer. After a short introductory presentation, the group traveled to St. Anthony’s Cemetery on White’s Woods Road, where a colony of the ground-nesting Cerceris wasps were known to inhabit.

Claire Rutledge, surrounded by volunteers, placing a collar over a Cerceris wasp hole.

On a tightly packed dirt road in the back of the cemetery we were able to find many wasp holes. The goal of this project is to spot a Cerceris wasp flying back to its colony carrying a beetle as its prey. Using aerial nets we want to try to catch or startle the wasp enough to release the beetle so that it can be collected and sent to the CAES to be identified and examined. Along with the nets, collars can also be used to gather the beetles. The collar is a file card with a hole punch tacked on top of a wasp opening, the hole punch is small enough for only to the wasp to fit through forcing the wasp to forfeit its prey. This technique of robbing the wasp or selective prey removal will not significantly alter the wasp’s provisioning behavior. Cerceris wasps are most active during July and into early August, so during this time colonies must be visited as often as possible to get the goal of capturing 50 beetles. Wasp activity is greatest when there is direct sunlight, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Since the wasps are typically found on hard packed sandy soil; baseball/softball diamonds, informal parking lots, camp-sites, and road edges are excellent locations to look for a wasp colony.

Cerceris wasp hole.

Cerceris wasp caught in a net by a skilled volunteer.

Cerceris Wasp Biosurveillance of Emerald Ash Borer -- 2011 Initial Results

Locations of Cerceris Wasp colonies (Red Markers) used as biosurveillance tool for
Emerald Ash Borer at White Memorial Foundation, Litchfield & Morris, CT, USA.
Google Earth Image 

We identified 4 colonies of Cerceris Wasps in close proximity to the property.  The wasp watchers have been  steadily collecting beetles (42 from all of the colonies) that the wasps have been bringing back to their nests.  The wasps become active every sunny day around 11:00 a.m. EST with their orientation flights around the nest entrance.  Very soon after leaving they start bring back beetles to their nests, where the wasp watchers are waiting to catch and release the wasp unharmed but leaving a beetle in the bottom of the insect net.  The beetles are sent to our state's coordinator for this project Claire Rutledge at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Cerceris Wasp Field Trip Results

White Memorial staff, interns, and volunteers

gathered around a Cerceris Wasp colony at

St. Anthony's Cemetery on White's Woods Rd.

On Thursday, 7/7/2011, 9 White Memorial staff, interns, and volunteers took a field trip to St. Anthony's Cemetery on White's Woods Rd. in Litchfield to learn more about Cerceris Wasps from Claire Rutledge of the CT. Agricultural Experiment Station. James Fischer had previously located a small colony of these wasps here, so it provided an ideal setting to learn more about them. We found 13 holes in the hard-packed soil along a little-used dirt driveway. These wasps seem to prefer hard soil over soft. The photo below shows a wasp peeking out of its hole.

The photo below shows a typical Cerceris wasp

hole with a pile of course-grained soil around it.

Cerceris wasp carrying its Buprestid beetle prey
by Floyd Connor from www.cerceris.info

Claire supplied us with nets, collecting bags, hole collars, and other equipment that we can use to steal Buprestid beetles from the wasps when they return to their burrows with these prey items. The primary goal is to monitor for the non-native, invasive, and highly destructive Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which is in the Buprestid group, and which is readily captured by these wasps in the Great Lakes states. They haven't been found yet in Connecticut, but this is a relatively easy way to monitor for their presence.