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[DOLLY]

"In the start of a carefully crafted emergency campaign to thwart a pest outbreak that is wreaking havoc on Thailand's vital cassava production, agricultural researchers will release a quarter of a million parasitic wasps in the northeastern part of the country. . .

Thailand's Department of Agriculture is expected to officially start the release of Anagyrus lopezi (the wasp's scientific name) as a form of biological control in the country's northeastern province of Khon Kaen on Saturday (17 July), following two small scale releases to evaluate environmental impact. . .

The pest is the cassava mealybug, known to scientists as Phenacoccus manihoti. Originally from South America, it feeds only on cassava, sucking sap from the plants and causing them to shrivel. Also a South American native, cassava was carried by Portuguese traders to Africa and Asia, where it thrived in the absence of the insect pests that inhabit its home territory. . .

Measuring less than 2 millimeters in length, the A. lopezi wasp has already shown itself to be a formidable natural enemy of the cassava mealybug in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Even when infestations are low, female wasps are able to detect and home-in on their prey, injecting their eggs into the mealybugs. The pest population is then gradually reduced, as the wasp larvae grow and as adult females feed on the host insect. The wasps pose no threat to humans, animals, or other insects."

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/18928...ource=r_science