Bug that kills hemlocks found in northern Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — Another tree-killing insect has been found in Indiana, but so far its threat is limited.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says the hemlock woolly adelgid was found for the first time in Indiana in mid-April on a single hemlock tree in LaPorte County. It says the infested tree may have originated from a landscape planting in Michigan and was brought into Indiana about five years ago.

State entomologist Phil Marshall says the good news is that the tiny aphid-like insect was found in northern Indiana when Indiana’s native range of hemlock trees is in the southern part of the state.

Since its introduction to the eastern United States in the mid-1920s, the bug has infested about half the native range of Eastern hemlock.