BUGGING YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TINY BEETLES ARRIVE TO GOBBLE UP PESTS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SAUGUS - The ash trees that line Los Rogues Drive provide an inviting canopy of shade, but a closer look shows the tender new leaves are crumbling and dying, a sure sign of a whitefly invasion.

On Wednesday, city arborists stepped up ladders and unleashed into the trees a powerful pest-control weapon - 500,000 red, black-spotted ladybugs that eat the flies in their immature stage.

This swarm of Hippodamia convergens, purchased by the city of Santa Clarita for less than $200 from Buena Biosystems of Ventura, is a natural predator of the tiny but pesky whitefly. The release of ladybugs in three Santa Clarita neighborhoods is part of an ongoing effort to let nature take its course rather than use chemicals to eradicate pests.

``We try to avoid using pesticides,'' said Ryan Wasson, the city's Neighborhood Leaf-out coordinator. ``A lot of people are sensitive to chemicals, so we only use them as a last resort.''

The winter's heavy rains, followed by hot weather and humidity, have made conditions prime for the whitefly, which sucks the sap out of new tender ash leaves and produces a sticky waste product that makes a mess of a car parked on the street, Wasson said. Santa Clarita's Urban Forestry Division brings on the ``good'' bugs when residents with goo on their windshields call and complain about the infestations.

``We do this all over the city, wherever there's a problem,'' said Emilio Blanco, the division's assistant field-services supervisor. ``The flies eat up the new growth, the sap goes through them, and they drop the mess on cars.''

It will be a few weeks before the ladybugs' efforts are visible, the arborists said as they scanned the towering ash trees along Los Rogues Drive in Saugus. Other teams hit the Four Oaks neighborhood in Canyon Country and the trees on Hyssop Lane near Saugus High School.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Emilio Blanco, a city arborist, places ladybugs in a tree by Los Rogues Drive. A magnification of his fingertip shows two of the tiny beetles that are voracious pest eaters.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer