719-661-5310If you live in Colorado, you might have seen pine beetle damage in your home. In this blog, we will learn about its signs and prevention.
A number of beetles attack southern pines, but not all are a threat, and those that are are managed in very different ways.
Checking a Tree for Beetle Activity
A tree attacked by a mountain pine beetle has a number of pitch tubes on the outside, where the beetle has entered the tree. To check for blue stain fungus, find one of the pitch tubes and cut about six inches above it.
Where the beetle came into the tree, it carves a gallery underneath the bark. It may be too early for the blue-stained fungi to be showing yet, but this is where the female beetle entered the tree and got into the cambium layer.
Black Turpentine Beetles
Do You See Pine Beetles Around Your Home?
Black turpentine beetles will often infest healthy trees, largely limiting their attack to the lower six feet of the trunk. They also produce distinctive granular frass that accumulates at the base of the tree.
If the infestation is light, fewer than 10 pitch tubes at the base of the trunk, the tree will likely be unaffected. Denser infestations may require action to save the tree, such as applying systemic insecticides.
Ips Engraver Beetles
Ips engraver beetles are the most common invaders of pines. Ips beetles typically attack stressed trees, and outbreaks are common after drought and after wind damage. Ips damage often looks like two or twenty dead trees clustered in an otherwise healthy stand.
Ips infestations appear simultaneously, with multiple trees showing the same symptoms at the same time and little detectable difference in how advanced the symptoms are. You can get it inspected. It can continue to breed in down timber and logging debris, and operating logging equipment during an active infestation can damage the bark of healthy pines, allowing beetles to spread.
The best treatment for ips is preventative management, timely thinning, and curtailing competition from hardwoods.
Southern Pine Beetle
A southern pine beetle outbreak can be extremely destructive, but this beetle can be successfully managed if action is taken quickly. It also tends to attack stressed pines, so preventative management is key, though once the outbreak starts rolling, healthy trees can be attacked as well.
The female initiates attacks using pheromones to call other southern pine beetles to help overwhelm the tree’s defenses. These initial attacks result in pitch tubes identical to those formed in response to ips.
Once mated, she excavates a serpentine egg gallery that can run in any direction, laying eggs along the sides as she goes, and when larvae hatch, they excavate a circular feeding chamber adjacent to the egg gallery.
Cutting Down Infested Trees
Unlike ips, most southern pine beetle larvae do not survive when their host tree is cut down, so this is a good basic action to halt an outbreak.
Healthy trees should be cut down at least the distance of one tree height from the infestation, preferably two. Recently killed trees can be harvested and removed from the site to further reduce the spread and control the situation.
Assessing Risk
Sites can be assessed for the potential risk that southern pine beetle poses, taking into account topography, soil content, total basal area, and percent pine composition. Stands in wet lowlands are subject to root damage, and stands on ridges may not have adequate access to water.
Soils with high clay content, greater than 28 percent, allow more water to run off before soaking into the ground, and in dry conditions roots will have a much harder time removing water from clay soils.
Stands with a high basal area are subject to competition from adjacent trees.
Signs of Powder Post Beetle Damage in Wood
Powder post beetles cause thousands of tiny, tiny holes, maybe one sixteenth of an inch across, in wood like siding, hardwood floors, or furniture.
Identifying Active vs. Inactive Infestations
It’s important to identify whether a powder post beetle infestation is active or inactive, and it’s most likely going to be inactive. If you’re seeing a trickling powder coming out of the holes, that means the infestation is active.
Looking straight down at the wood, if the piece is only a couple of feet off the ground, powder should be visible if the infestation is active.
Treating an Active Infestation
Treating a powderpost beetle infestation is super easy with a product like Boric Acid, a wood surface treatment mixed with water and sprayed onto all the exposed wood. If the wood has a heavy layer of paint, that layer needs to come off before treatment so the product can penetrate the wood.
The sprayer should be on the lightest, most misting setting possible, covering as much surface area as possible with a very light mist rather than soaking the wood.
