We just got 'em here, anything we can do to stop 'em, slow or kill ? any advice? I've seen areas totally decimated.
Cut ahead of them is what I saw out in Oregon, of course when the federal government owns the land that is a lot easier said than done.
We used cut and leave in the south, if we could not harvest. Sun heats bark and kills larvae, must get out ahead of the active spot and cut back to dead trees with no beetles..
We would cut a 300' buffer strip around the last trees that showed beetle activity. If you do not have a market for the trees cut from the buffer strip, you have to just leave them lay :).
Quote from: Bosco on June 01, 2018, 11:28:45 AM
We just got 'em here, anything we can do to stop 'em, slow or kill ? any advice? I've seen areas totally decimated.
If you are dealing with Mt. Pine Beetle in Lodgepole, there is little you can do that will be very effective on any significant scale to slow or kill them. By cutting ahead and quickly harvesting at the first sign of infestation you can at least somewhat lower their impact. But during major outbreaks it will do little to slow their spread. In the Northern Rockies, once Lodgepole stands reach about 8-9" average diameter and about 60years of age, they are prime beetle bait.
Ponderosa Pine stands can be made somewhat resistant to Mt. Pine Beetle by keeping the stands properly thinned to maintain high vigor so the trees can "pitch out" the beetles. But this must have been done well before the trees are subject to attack. If the beetles are already in the area you are a few years too late for thinning to have much impact.
The use of pheromones to either cause the beetles to avoid certain trees or to attract them to sacrifice trees (depending on the pheromone) which are then destroyed killing the beetles has shown some effectiveness in a few cases. But this is very expensive and is generally only used to protect small areas such as campgrounds.
If you are dealing with Western Pine Beetle in mature Ponderosa Pine, those beetles can be kept in check through proper selection of harvest trees using Keene's tree classification criteria.