HONOLULU -- The state's Department of Agriculture took a first step on Tuesday to get approval to release tiny wasps from Taiwan and Tanzania to kill off introduced species in the islands, including another little wasp that has devastated plant life statewide.

At a meeting of the Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, the Plant and Pest Control Branch asked permission to proceed in the effort to breed two tiny wasps. Officials said one of the wasps would kill off a stinging nettle caterpillar by laying its eggs in the larvae of the caterpillar.

The other wasp officials want to introduce is one similar to the one that is killing wiliwili and coral trees across the state by laying its eggs on the leafs of the trees. The leaves crumple from galls that are formed, restricting the plant from getting energy from the sun and it eventually dies.

"What we expect to happen is when we release it, it will attack the small wasp that is causing those galls and it will kill the majority of them," said Neil Reimer of the Plant and Pest Control Branch.

Bio control does not mean total eradication. The new wasp will ultimately survive on the target but the target wasp will also survive, but will be brought under control.

Plant Pest Control officials have spent more than a year studying the predatory wasp. They said they will release thousands of them once under permit to do so.

"We'll put them into certain areas and they will start mass producing in those areas and build up populations," Reimer said.

A federal permit will be issued first, then a state permit to allow the release of the wasps from Taiwan and Tanzania. That could happen as soon as the summer.