Answer: To simplify your process of trying to identify successful mountain pine beetle hits, the color of the pitch tubes will be darker on a successful hit. If the tree was successful at fighting the beetle. Read more.
Archive for the ‘Pine Beetle Prevention’ category
Life Cycle of the Mountain Pine Beetle
March 4th, 2011
How Can Something So Small, Cause So Much Destruction!!!!!
March 3rd, 2011The mountain pine beetle is only a miniscule 5 millimeters long, but when working in droves, it can cause millions of dollars in destruction!
Mountain Pine Beetle are Not Acting How They Should
May 14th, 2010I went to Estes Park to find the truth about the mountain pine beetle. The darkness at the heart of an invading colony would make even Joseph Conrad turn away.
Interest in the pine beetle in the Estes Valley is high. There were over 150 people at the talk given by beetle chaser, David Leatherman, who has logged over a million miles by car, plane and shoe leather to research the beetle. There was a lot of sex, drugs but not enough rock n roll for my taste.
I attended two smaller panels. Pretty much every chair was taken. Mostly local homeowners, some spray companies and related vendors. There were 22 vendors pitching everything from tree thinning and tree removal to landscape design, timber and wood reclamation firms specializing in the blue stain wood created by beetle kill trees. There were product vendors selling pherenomes, chitosan based fertilizers and a dancer that performs a warding-off-the-beetle jig on your property. Just kidding about the last one.
I’ll have more to say about pherenomes later. However according to Sky Stephens’ presentation they have only been tested in conjunction with preventive spraying of carbaryl and permethrin like this test in Aspen.
Leatherman is slowly making his way off into the sunset and there are several younger folks such as Stephens and Boyd Lebeda of Colorado State Forest Service and Chris Dahl, the Park Ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park who are poised to continue adding to the body of knowledge on the beetle.
This beetle does scare people. Scott Zurn, the Head of Public Works for Estes Park alluded to some denial in the town. I don’t blame the beetle deniers. When you drive in on Route 34 you hardly see any signs. There is even a map of positive hits in the Estes Valley and it’s just a handful.
However, from what I saw and heard, and after reviewing the scientific and anecdotal evidence, it seems like barring a tremendously cold 2010 to 2011 winter, that the mountain pine beetle will start hitting the valley hard in 2011. The hope is that ponderosa pines, which have more of a variety in age and bio-diversity than lodgepole pines will withstand the epidemic better.
Sound research device protects individual trees
March 4th, 2010National Public Radio and several newspaper websites report that mountain pine beetles are repelled by their own sound. The practical application would be a device that emits the proper sounds. You would hang or attach the device to one tree making it a solution for a high profile tree but not all pines on a property. I will follow up with more information on the actual availability of a device.
New pine beetle treatment tested
February 12th, 2010By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
North Forty News
- February 3rd, 2010-
Residents of Crystal Lakes, (Colo.), northwest of Red Feather Lakes, are reforesting burned areas with seedlings treated with a new product that promises to strengthen each tree’s ability to resist the mountain pine beetle.
Resident Kathy Dillon-Durica recently planted 90 seedlings and treated them with a product trademarked ODC, produced by AgriHouse Inc. of Berthoud.
The product uses a natural substance called chitosan, made from Icelandic shellfish. Diluted with water, the product is applied like a fertilizer around the base of trees. In turn, the chitosan stimulates the tree to produce more resin. Read the rest at North Forty News.
Get a quote on mountain pine beetle spraying from ServiceMagic
FAQ about mountain pine beetle
February 1st, 2010Check out the short FAQ about spraying for the mountain pine beetle. Leads to another website.
What do tree services spray to stop MPB? -(Basic)
February 1st, 2010Preventative sprays are a tool to protect high value trees from pine beetle attack. The strategy is to apply a layer of insecticide to the bark of susceptible trees . This kills the beetles when they try to chew through the bark to lay their eggs.
To be effective this treatment must be made before the adults emerge from last years host trees, which usually occurs from mid-July through September. Three chemicals are currently labeled for pine beetle control.
- Permethrin
- Bifenthrin
- Carbaryl
All are effective. Carbaryl has been used successfully for many , many years. It is used at a higher rate than Bifenthrin or Permethrin, which are a newer chemistry.
Mountain Pine Beetle – Basic Symptoms
February 1st, 2010The most obvious symptoms of pine beetle infestation are pitch tubes. These are masses of sticky sap that resemble wads of chewing gum stuck to the trunks of the trees. Pitch tubes are a defense mechanism of the host tree. If the tree can produce enough pitch it can push out the attacking insect and entomb it in a sticky mess.
Evidentially this strategy has been fairly successful for millions of years. Ancient insects can be found trapped in amber produced by trees that lived during the Mesozoic era.
The beetles produce chemicals called pheromones. These are chemicals that tell every other pine beetle in the neighborhood that a tree is being attacked. It is not uncommon to find a tree with hundreds of pitch tubes next to a tree that has been untouched.
Other symptoms of pine beetle and Ips beetle infestation are extensive woodpecker activity, fine boring dust at the base of the trees, or the presence of the beetles themselves. They are small (1/8 to 1/3 inch long) and resemble tiny Volkswagen microbuses. They are anywhere from a black to a rusty reddish brown color ( like most surviving Volkswagen microbuses). Trees that have been successfully attacked will usually still look green until the next summer, when the needles will all turn reddish brown, seemingly all of the sudden. By this time the beetles have often already left the host tree to infest others in the neighborhood and beyond.
The adult beetles carry Blue Stain Fungus with them when they move to a new host tree. This fungus stains the wood a purplish color and clogs up the water carrying tissues in the tree. The role of this fungus in the pine beetle’s life is not fully understood. It may help weaken the tree’s ability to pitch the beetles out. It may make the wood more nutritious for the beetles. It is probably a combination of many factors.
