We employ the following three ways to prevent pine beetle infestation:
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Thinning the trees. This allows each tree more access to water and nutrients thereby enabling the tree to grow healthier and more able to "pitch out" the pine beetles.
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Removing Infested
Trees. Pine beetles may fly up to 3 miles in search of a desirable tree. However, the pine beetles are much more likely to attack adjacent trees. We cut down and treat all infested trees on our property. The next five pages provide more detail on how we do this.
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Spraying Insecticides. Although I prefer not to use chemical means to kill bugs, we use Sevin to spray the large ponderosa pines near our house. The esthetic value of these trees has no monetary equivalent to us.
Even though we have expended much effort to improve the viability of our forest, since 1998 we have lost about 60 ponderosa pine trees to pine beetles. One tree was in an ideal growing condition, at the top of our west meadow. It had plenty of moisture and the nearest tree was about 40 feet away. We measured the stump after felling the infected tree - it was 33 inches in diameter!
Although we were discouraged by losing such a large tree, we will continue to attempt to protect our forest from pine beetles. Now, if only all our neighbors would do the same....
Click here for a Colorado State Extension publication on pine beetles. This informative publication is PDF so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. |
