[Vermont] For some, a fungus success story means nothing is growing at the back of their refrigerator. But for Costa, research assistant professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous growth in their laboratory of this fungus, a strain called Lecanicillium mucarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of the eastern hemlock tree. From Georgia to Maine, this once-mighty conifer is now succumbing to an exotic pest, hemlock woolly adelgid. While the adelgid, originally from Japan and China, appears to have no successful predators in North America, some native fungi—like the one Costa and Grassano have growing on branches in their laboratory—kill the pest.

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