Pine Bark Beetle
Overview
Bark beetles are tiny insects with hard, cylindrical bodies that feed and breed in the inner bark (phloem) layer of trees.There are 600 different species of bark beetles in the United States. Several species, such as the mountain pine beetle are aggressive and can develop large populations that attack and kill healthy trees causing significant adverse economic and social impacts on the lumber industry, fish and wildlife, water quality, and property values.[6]
Bark beetles enter trees by boring holes in the bark of the tree. As the larvae consume the inner tissues of the tree, they often consume enough of the phloem to girdle the tree, cutting off the spread of water and nutrients. Healthier trees may produce sap, resin or latex, which often contains a number of insecticidal and fungicidal compounds that can kill, injure, or immobilize attacking insects. Released sap or resins can plug bored holes of bark beetles and seal wounds. Some tree species release chemical compounds which bind with amino acids in the gut of bark beetles, reducing their ability to process woody mater
Extent and Impat Of Infestation
Bark beetles are most commonly recognized by their impact on the lumber industry. Over the last 20 years, massive infestations of mountain pine bark beetles in western North America have killed millions of acres of forest from New Mexico to British Columbia. The mountain pine beetle, southern pine beetle, and their near relatives are major pests of conifer forests in North America. A similarly aggressive invasive species in Europe is the spruce ips. And coffee plantations around the world are plagued by another major pest, the tiny coffee berry borer.
“The amount of conifer mortality that we’re seeing both here and in Europe is unprecedented historically,” says Jesse Morris, a geographer with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Morris and other scientists are trying to determine the potential impacts, such as more intense wildfires, disrupted watersheds, destroyed habitats, and reduced carbon storage, as climate change spurs increasingly widespread and severe beetle outbreaks. Bark beetles are a natural part of the conifer forest life cycle, regularly flaring and fading like fireworks. But the scope and intensity in the past two decades is anything but normal, scientists say, in large part because rising temperatures are preventing the widespread winter die-off of beetle larvae, while also enhancing the beetles’ killing power. Not only are the insects expanding into new territory, they’re also hatching earlier and reproducing more frequently. New infestations become full-blown with astonishing speed, and the sheer numbers of beetles exceeds anything forest experts have seen before. Morris says he’s seen spruce beetle epidemics in Utah so intense that when the insects had killed all the trees, they then began attacking telephone poles.
Status Of A Solution
We have identified two candidate microbes and are negotiating a license to develop those microbes as a solution for this pest. Further testing, proof-of-concept, and toxicology on these microbes is required before going forward with commercialization and deployment. In addition, the Foundation may conduct further discovery for other microbes until a cost-effective, highly efficacious solution has been derived.
