As much as we all enjoyed that blast of early spring weather this March, it also heralded in one of Nova Scotia’s less welcomed experiences: ticks. It turns out that the eight-legged crawler is just as much of a fan of temperatures above 4°C as we are.

At first glance, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) – a tiny, aphid-like insect barely bigger than a millimetre – hardly seems threatening. But Nova Scotia’s old-growth hemlock forests, the meal of choice for this insect, are now under significant threat if nothing is done – and the effects of these forests being wiped out would be catastrophic.