For eight decades, the Palisade Insectary has been working to control pests and weeds in Colorado with wasps, beetle, weevils and other biocontrols.

On Thursday, it celebrated its 80th anniversary with a community gathering and a proclamation from the governor.

In 1945, a grassroots organization of Palisade peach growers came together to try and get control over a pesky moth that was eating their crop, Palisade Insectary Director Dan Bean said. They turned to Macrocentrus ancylivorus or the “Mac wasp.”

“We still grow anywhere from a million to two million annually,” Bean said. “We put them out in paper bags in the field, in the pupal stage, and then they emerge as adults. They roam around and they lay eggs in the larvae of the peach moth and kill it from the inside out. The farmers were

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