USURPING PSYLLIDS; LADYBUGS PRESSED INTO WAR TO SAVE TREE.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

With the fall of dusk tonight, a tiny war will begin in the trees of Valley Village Park.

On one side stands a voracious horde of insects from Australia attacking the park's eucalyptus trees. On the other, 2 million ladybugs brought in to eat the invaders.

City park workers will begin filling the trees with ladybugs this evening in an effort to control an outbreak of the strange new pest, called the redgum lerp psyllid.

The psyllid was only spotted on these shores last year, and park officials don't know if the ladybugs will be able to bring them under control. But Kevin Regan with the city's Department of Recreation and Parks said they have already watched ladybugs eating the minute pests in the park.

``We've seen them chomping down,'' said Regan, the department's principal grounds maintenance supervisor. ``We thought, hey, there's some biological control going on here. Let's try to enhance that.''

Psyllids damage trees by sucking their sap. The bugs also create small, white cones of sticky honeydew on the leaves, said Rosser Garrison, entomologist with Los Angeles county's agriculture department.

Psyllids weaken eucalyptus trees, leaving them vulnerable to attack from other insects and fungi.

``They won't kill the tree itself, but they could open it up to other things that will attack it,'' Garrison said.

Fortunately, they don't seem partial to other plants, Garrison said.

Regan said parks officials hope the ladybugs will start eating and breeding immediately, regenerating their ranks until the infestation is brought under control. They will be released into the trees in the evening, since ladybugs tend to be less active at night and might otherwise fly away before beginning battle with the psyllids.