Visiting Keji this summer? Make sure you don't take home these tiny, destructive bugs

When staff at Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site welcome visitors this year, they'llalso askthem to be extra careful not to accidentally bring home a tiny, destructive pest.

It's one way thepark istrying to limit the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect native to Japanthat's threatening some of southwest Nova Scotia'soldest forests.

"If they get onto a bird or a person's coat, they can travel long distances like that and survive," Dave Ireland, a project manager at Kejimkujik, told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon. "What we're hoping is that people recognize ... they may inadvertently grab some of these crawlers on their clothes or their trailers."

Ireland is urging campers and visitors to Keji towash their clothes and wipe down their gear when they leave, especially if they plan to explore hemlock stands in other parts of the province.He said using a lint roller on your clothes often does the trick.

Right now, the tiny bugislargely contained to southwest Nova Scotia, but Irelandfears it's only a matter of time before theyendup infecting trees in Halifax.They only hurt eastern hemlock trees, not people or animals, said Ireland.

"We need to get the word out that this critter is one the move, and people can help," he said.

Listen to Maritime Noon's interview atKejimkujikNational Park and Historic Site:

Injecting trees with insecticide

Parkstaff have also begun injecting some of Keji'shemlocks with aproduct calledIMA-jet that kills woolly adelgid.

Ireland said the decision to use a pesticideon the treescomes after a lengthyenvironmental impact assessment in consultation with Mi'kmaw communities.

"That little tiny bug, which is a big problem here for Kejimkujik, really starves the trees of nutrients and it sucks the nutrients and the sap out of the trees," said park ecologist Matthew Smith, who has been working on the hemlock woolly adelgidproject since 2017.

He said because the insects, which were first detected in the park in 2018, create a wooly case around themselves, it's difficult to spraythem from the outside.

Instead, park staff aredrilling about three-inch holes into a select number of trees and injecting the insecticide using a special instrument that looks like a glue gun. This ensures "the vascular system takes up the pesticide."

"If they weren't treated, we expect trees like this would die, certainly within two, three years because some of them are already been infested for a while," Smith said.

The treatment is supposed to protect the trees for about five to seven years.Parks Canada has said trees injected with the product would be permanently marked and monitored, and that repeat treatments would likely be needed in the future.

The plan isto treat about five or six "commemorative" stands of Keji'shemlock so they are around for future generations, Ireland said.

A number of locations at the park have been chosen, including at Jeremy's Bay campground and Hemlocks and Hardwoods Trail.

"But let's be honest, there is going to be a mortality event and we are going to see a lot of hemlocks die and we're coming to terms with that," Ireland said.

He urged people to report sightings of the insect to the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency or by emailinghwa@nshemlock.ca so scientistscan monitor where thetiny critters gonext.