Was winter cold enough to knock pine beetle?

[gamehunter6o]

Was last winter severe enough to slow the spread of the pine beetle?
I saw the devastating affects of these beetles in BC and AB last fall.:shock:

[Iron Glove]

No, it was not.
We'll be buying packets of pherenome to tack onto the trees in our yard. They apparantly signal to the migrating bugs that the tree is already occupied so the beggers go to your neighbour's trees.

[bensonvalley]

Nope, it's going to have be several winters in a row that are very cold in order to knock the population back. One cold winter kills a few bugs more but when the population is at such an extreme level....doesn't do SFA.

[Mr. Friendly]

No, it was not.
We'll be buying packets of pherenome to tack onto the trees in our yard. They apparantly signal to the migrating bugs that the tree is already occupied so the beggers go to your neighbour's trees.
that didn't work at TRU (Thompson Rivers University)...all the Pines there are toast and have the pheremone baggies hanging from them. :(

[d6dan]

Nope. It didn't get cold enough and now your seeing the devastation those li'l buggers do.!!! I remember in the early 80's, southern interior, they were eaten every mature pine tree they could find and we were right behind them with bunchers and grapple skidders..never did have any effect on them.. Its a sorry sight thats for sure...

[elkdom]

Was last winter severe enough to slow the spread of the pine beetle?
I saw the devastating affects of these beetles in BC and AB last fall.:shock:

NOPE! and the little "buggers" make their own "anti-freeze", so they are doing fine!

if you have a "wooden leg" :-|?? your are in big trouble:o

[500grhollowpoint]

Well yes and no. (According to a dude on CBC radio a few weeks ago) It was cold enough to have a slight effect on them, very minor. The problem was the extreme cold was too late in the year and the bug's bloodstream was already full of glycol..... had it been that cold in november it would have had a better effect.....

[gbear]

The yes and no answer is likely true. Yes, it may have had a small effect on those beetles that flew late in the year (September). Those beetles wouldn't have had enough time in the fall to develop into the most optimal stage for surviving the winter. So, some of our surveys are showing a bit of mortality in that set of the population.

The best time for the cold weather to hit to make an impact is after mid April, or before Halloween. The previous posts are correct that the beetles develop levels of their own "antifreeze" inside their bodies to be able to survive the winter. That usually starts happening around the end of October and then their bodies start to get rid of it in April when the spring type weather hits.

The no part of the answer comes into play when you consider the big picture. There are so many beetles out there, scientists have figured out that you would have to see a 97.5% level of mortality to start to see a declining population. That means that from all the things that kill beetles - cold, woodpeckers, other predatory beetles, fall and burn, logging, etc - if more then 2.5% of them survive, your population is still increasing.

[rocksteady]

No, it was not.
We'll be buying packets of pherenome to tack onto the trees in our yard. They apparantly signal to the migrating bugs that the tree is already occupied so the beggers go to your neighbour's trees.

Actually most pheromones work the other way round, they attract the beetle....Unless you are using a product than I mused to use when I hung 5000 of those flippin things between Merritt and Princeton in the early 80's

[500grhollowpoint]

Uh....no http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/06/speakout-synthetic-pheromone-packets-a-safer-way/

Like he said. Makes them think the tree is infested already

[Squirrelnuts]

Actually most pheromones work the other way round, they attract the beetle....Unless you are using a product than I mused to use when I hung 5000 of those flippin things between Merritt and Princeton in the early 80's

I still remember the headaches that I used to get from those damn things. (http://pherotech.xplorex.com/page186.htm#MountainPineBeetleBait).

They worked, though. Not so sure about the "repellent"... Fingers crossed that it works out.

[dana]

The only thing killing the beetle is starvation. We are coming to the end of er in many areas of the interior. They've gone and ate everything. Nothing left for them to attack.

[sawmill]

I have heard reports that they are apparently adapting to other trees-bull pine,fir ,spruce ect.I sure hope not .

[chris]

well my dad works for the forestry and according to them we will never knock those buggers out. It needs to be extremely cold before the first snowfall for a week or two in a row. If it snows it triggers the bugs into hibernation mode and then it doesnt really matter if its cold. Also snow acts as an insulater. Short of a massive forest fire we really have no hope left for fighting them, the infestation has spread to wide. Atleast this is what I understand to be true.

[Sitkaspruce]

The beetle in BC is just finishing up. Attcks levels have dropped drastically everwhere except the Caribou, where it did drop, just not as much. Much of the vast pine stands are finished and a lot of our mid-term timber supply (15-30 yo stands) are also attacked. Winters are too warm to do anything and the beetle is too adaptive, as it is hiting Ponderousa Pine, some Whitebark Pine and even spruce.

As for hanging Phermones that tell the beetle to stay away, the tree is already full, they will work if there is endemic populations of beetle in the air, and attack ratio's are ~ 4-1 (one tree from last year produces enough beetle to attack 4 more tree's), but with attack ratio's as high as 20-1, the phermones will simple not work as there is too many beetle and and only so many trees. Beetle are terrible fliers, so once they find a tree, they usually start drilling.

I will post the results of the 07/08 over flights and results today and you can read for yourself about how bad the forests in BC are doing with respect to all forest health issues.

here the link. you can follow through the years to see how bad it got, but if you have traveled through the interior in the last 5 years, you can see the damage done.
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/health/overview/2008.htm

As one guy from the Canadia Forest Service said, the only thing that will stop the beetle is Labrador, as it is the end of the line for Pine.

Cheers

SS