The Mountain Pine Beetle is causing forest devastation from British Columbia to Mexico. Is it coming to an area near you? There is no doubt. If you live in the Rocky Mountains, the beetle is either coming or already there. British Columbia has experienced a die-off of White Pine that is devastating. In the past few years, Colorado was hit with a vengeance. Wyoming was hard hit. This year, we are receiving MANY more calls from Montana than we have received in the past. Our callers are ranchers and home-owners who can see the rust spreading in the trees in their view.

A warming of the global temperatures has eliminated the extreme winter cold that used to keep the beetle in check, killing or reducing its populations over the frigid months.

Lodgepole Pine, White Pine, Limber Pine, Ponderosa Pines are the most affected. Lodgepoles and White Pine have suffered the most because their stands are usually larger, closer together, and less manicured (either by man or nature) than the others.

Female beetles enter the tree by chewing through the bark, taking with them the blue stain fungi that ultimately kills the tree. The female beetle emits a pheromone that attracts other beetles (a male, she hopes). She begins to build a nursery, deposits her eggs, weathers the now-warmer winter, and her brood emerges next Spring to fly to new trees to reproduce all over again.

One "nursery" tree can infect at least two and possibly more trees next season.

When the tree is full of beetles, they begin signaling through another pheromone that the tree is full, and new potential occupants should find another domicile. Verbenone (the recommended beetle repellent treatment) is a synthesized version of the "go away" pheromone.

Evidence of attack are usually plentiful and fast. (see right > >) A tree attacked in the summer will show characteristic "popcorn" pitch-outs where beetles chewed their way into the trunk. While some trees are strong enough to "pitch" the beetle out and survive the attack, there is little way to know if that is true until it is too late. Is it a "nursery" or not? Safest bet is to cut it down and dispose of the potential danger.

Once a tree is infested with pine beetles, practically nothing can be done to save the tree. Mountain Pine Beetles carry Blue Stain Fungi on their bodies. Once introduced into the tree, the fungi take over and block water transfer up the trunk. Soon, the tree begins to "rust" and then dies. When felled, the trunk will often exhibit rings of blue from the bark in, confirming that it died of beetle-introduced fungi. (see right > >)

Several treatments are being used to combat the beetle. Large scale spraying has been employed for the past several years. Park Services and governmental agencies are using Carbaryl (Sevin) over large areas of the Rocky Mountains. There is huge debate about the safety of such spraying. While it is considered fairly successful, it can last as long as 2 years on the tree bark. It kills beneficial as well as harmful insects, affects birds, and coats the pine cones that pine squirrels and small birds use for food.

Pyrethrum sprays have been found to be effective and less toxic. However, they must be applied every year and "less toxic" does not mean "not toxic". They also coat the bark, needles and cones of the trees, affecting the same insects, birds, and small mammals.

Run-off from both poisons is likely to end up in the water supply of communities down stream.

Other treatments such as injecting root systems or trunks with pesticides (more targeted and safer for the environment) have proven ineffective to date.

The treatment of choice today is Verbenone (discussed below). In years past, it was considered expensive and impractical for more than a tree or two. However, with popularity comes volume. And with volume the prices begin to fall. Verbenone is no exception. It now costs less than the alternative spray methods on a tree-by-tree basis, and many more property owners are using it for acreage.

How to dispose of infested wood?

An infested tree must be cut and handled before the flight season: Before mid-May. How you handle felled trees is as important as cutting them. You must make sure that the beetles within the trunk are never able to come out (they can over-winter in dead-cut trees and still infest the next batch of trees). Take the tree and the slash (limbs and branches) to the nearest air curtain burner in your area to be burned on the spot. If no community burner is available, you must move the logs to a sunny area and cover them in 6mil transparent or black plastic to heat them to an intolerable temperature to kill the larvae and nymphs under the bark. Alternatively, if you have the energy, strength or tools, de-bark the whole tree or chip it into fine mulch for the forest.

CAUTION: The mountain pine beetle is a consumer of fresh, healthy trees while Ips pini beetles are normally seeking freshly killed material. The question of Ips beetles and wood chips has been studied by Joel McMillan and his colleagues in Arizona.

Freshly chipped pine is very attractive to Ips beetles. The recommendation: make sure that all fresh wood chips are scattered widely so that they dry out quickly. It's also recommended that no fresh chips be left at the base of healthy pine trees. If necessary the chips should be raked at least 6 feet away from the base of the healthy trees. The chips will loose their attractancy once they have dried out. The same thing holds for slash piles. Leaving fresh slash is an open invitation for Ips to get a local population growing. Ips pini have a generation time of ~45 days at optimal temperatures so most areas of the western USA have multiple generations per year. Don't invite them!

Thin your trees, if possible. Manicured properties have stronger trees. Thinner forests are also brighter. Beetles dislike sunlight. Water the trees nearest your home. Trees with more water can produce more pitch to "pitch" the beetle out.

What the future holds?

There is no definable end in sight for Mountain Pine Beetles. As long as the temperatures remain warm and the food source is there, they will continue to chew their way through the forest. However, there is a large effort both public and private to save as much of the current green as is practical until the population in any one location is controlled (repelled from sections until the beetles within those sections die from long-distance flight in search of suitable homes)

Saving the entire forest is not practical. But saving the beautiful trees surrounding your home or cabin is practical and getting less expensive every year. Place Verbenone barriers between yourself and unprotected acreage. Be very pro-active with the largest, most valuable and most important trees in your view. Encourage your neighbors not to be complacent or discouraged, and buy repellents in larger volume to save dollars for everyone.

All of us love the forest. We must get used to a certain amount of tree-kill (more than we want). The beetles usually attack trees 8" in diameter and larger (although they have attacked smaller trees when nothing else was available). The killing of larger trees gives the younger ones more light and more resources to grow tall and strong. We hope that the younger ones will live to fight another day. Some areas have more varieties of evergreen trees. The Eastern slope of the Rockies in Colorado has Engleman Spruce, Sub Alpine Fir and other spruce and fir trees that will weather the beetle attacks better and survive to re-populate the forest with green in coming years.

While doing all that you can to save your privately-owned green patch of heaven in the Rockies, we highly recommend that property owners begin to re-populate the mountain sides with trees less vulnerable to attack by the Mountain Pine Beetle. Plant or transplant spruces, firs, aspen, other species suitable to the same terrain but less susceptible.

Why Verbenone is the treatment of choice.

Verbenone is the treatment of choice for property owners who want to protect their high value trees and acreage but don't want to risk wildlife and run-off of contaminants. It is tried and true - tested for many years in the forests of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, British Columbia - all up and down the Rockies. The US Forest Service and the National Park Services have purchased thousands of treatments and continue to purchase more each year.

The pheromone comes in tiny pouches that you tack to the trunk of the susceptible tree in the early summer. It tricks the beetles into continuing to fly, looking for more fruitful acreage than yours. Many will die before finding suitable habitats.

It's easy and effective. In the past it has cost more than spraying poisons. Not now! Our volume purchasing power has brought the prices down to an all-time low!

Now, Verbenone is easy. Effective. AND less expensive than poison! Buy it Here