Ips beetles

GATreeGrower · August 13, 2013, 06:19:10 PM

We have what I believe are Ips beetles in a 27 year old stand. There are about 20-30 trees that I just noticed are infested. They have jumped on it quickly. There's about 60-70 acres of these pines. We were going to wait another year to cut but should we go ahead? Can we get away with only cutting a few acres around the outbreak spot?

Texas Ranger · August 13, 2013, 08:54:39 PM

Looks like a lightning strike on the middle tree, I would watch real close, and cut to preserve

WDH · August 13, 2013, 09:11:06 PM

Looks like the lightning struck tree attracted them. They will probably stop there, but they bear watching closely. I expect stumpage prices to go up a bit next year, so waiting until next year on the whole stand and losing the trees in this spot would probably make you more money than harvesting the whole stand now. If you could cut a couple of acres around the spot now, that should take care of the problem, and you will not lose much value. Check to make sure they are not in other parts of the stand. Do you see pitch tubes on the trees?

Hopefully, they are not southern pine beetle. There is a way to tell by taking off a piece of bark and looking at the egg gallery shape in the inner bark. The gallery branching pattern for Ips and SPB are different. As I am sure you know, SPB would be a higher level threat to the stand.

GATreeGrower · August 13, 2013, 10:10:22 PM

I'm gonna check tomorrow more closely, burnt out on the tree farming business today. Bogged down in the woods since 9:00 and had to leave the disc harrow behind for another problem.

Logger is supposed to move in sometime next week anyway but it was on the other side of the road. This stand was thinned pretty badly (by a different logger & I was still in school) and isn't doing much growing. A lot of it has died already.

Thank yall as always. If it's SPB, clear cut?

WDH · August 13, 2013, 10:37:23 PM

No. But, I would cut more like five acres around the spot. The GFC website should have some specific recommendations on just what size buffer to cut for SPB. They can be nasty.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

GATreeGrower · August 13, 2013, 10:53:28 PM

Quote from: WDH on August 13, 2013, 10:37:23 PM
No. But, I would cut more like five acres around the spot. The GFC website should have some specific recommendations on just what size buffer to cut for SPB. They can be nasty.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Hoping so, Mr. Danny. Thanks as always.

Texas Ranger · August 13, 2013, 11:31:57 PM

It looks like Ips, but only inspection would tell. Danny may be right on the 5 acres, but, I would be more conservative. but, Danny knows Georgia a whole lot better than I do.

OK, never mind on the 5 acre comment above, Danny was talking about SPB. Flagging in the crowns supports Ips as the cause. I do not care to be quoted on prescriptions from Texas, Danny does enough of that!!! 8) Long distance recommendations are suspect, at best.

WDH · August 14, 2013, 07:53:26 AM

After checking, the buffer width that must be cut around an active SPB spot is at least as wide as the trees are tall. For 27 year old trees, I would go with at least 100 feet around the spot. A circle with a radius of 100 feet is a bit less than 1 acre.

Texas Ranger · August 14, 2013, 10:04:16 AM

Back in the day when I was actively controlling SPB's we cut 100 feet in front of the last fader's and monitored for a few weeks. Had one guy working for me that could smell an active beetle spot, never got the hang of that, but you could hear the secondary insects. Biggest bug spot I ever worked was a little over 1800 acres back in the '80's, we harvested over one million feet and lost several million more. The spot had come off the Big Thicket National Monument, where there was no control, and into the A-C indian reservation. It took us most of the summer to shut it down.