3:00 PM EST, December 1, 2007

EWING, N.J. (AP) _ A laboratory full of bugs might make some people nervous. But for Tom Dorsey, it's just another day on the job.

"Nothing here bites, scratches or claws," Dorsey recently said at the 21,000-square-foot Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory he runs in Ewing.
The state Agriculture Department lab, funded annually with about $1 million in state and federal funds, breeds beneficial bugs to fight invasive plant species and pesky insects that threaten the state's open spaces and agricultural crops.

In many cases, the lab is importing bugs to target pests that were accidentally brought into the state through global trade.

"Free trade is not free," Carl Schulze, director of plant industry for the state Agriculture Department, told The Record of Bergen County for Saturday newspapers.
"We have to clean up the mess created when invasive species are brought into this country," Schulze said.
One success story at the lab is a gnat-sized wasp that attacks Mexican bean beetles, which prey on the state's soybean crop. The wasps cost a fraction of what farmers would have to pay to spray pesticides.
The lab also raises Chinese weevils, nicknamed "mile-a-minute bugs" because they're able to quickly chow down on the invasive mile-a-minute weed that has choked out natural areas across New Jersey. The lab produced 40,000 mile-a-minute bugs last year.
The laboratory's 11,000 square-foot center section features 30 environmentally controlled insect rearing rooms. Lab workers are able to regulate temperature, humidity and photo period to simulate any season or time of day.
There are diet preparation rooms that are equipped to mix large volumes of artificial diets and food supplements for the insects.
Other insects the lab is testing include European beetles that attack the invasive weed garlic mustard. Researchers didn't have to go far to find the weed _ there was a patch right next to the laboratory's front yard.
There are also parasites that battle gypsy moths and beetles that eat purple loosestrife, which hurts freshwater wetlands.
Information from: The Record of Bergen County, http://www.northjersey.com