The Bug That’s Eating the Woods.” “Small Pests, Big Problems: The Global Spread of Bark Beetles.” “Eighty-Nine Million Acres ...

“They’ve eaten through hundreds, if not thousands of acres of pine trees…these trees die, they look terrible, they’re not ...

and the bark-burrowing pests declined to more normal populations. An industry built around the blue-stained wood colored by the fungus the beetles carried into pine trees even struggled to survive.

He visually inspects each acre to pinpoint problem spots where bark beetles may be moving in ... a surge in activity from the mountain pine beetle. In 2021, the insect impacted 1,500 acres statewide.

What happens is the widespread scent of freshly damaged pine – caused by terpenes in conifer resin – attracts pest insects such as bark and wood-boring beetles. Vast amounts of red pine stands ...

As she peeled back the bark with her ax, she accidentally squished a small black beetle. Across western North America, in millions of acres of pine forest, the story is the same. Drive through ...