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09-10-2001, 11:51 AM

I had to know more about this, so I went and did some quick reading. From

http://www.forestry.ubc.ca/fetch21/F...osae/pine.html (also has some decent pictures)

-- the beetles "attack" trees and lay egg "galleries" about 3 feet (90 cm) long. When the larvae hatch, they chew the hell out of the bark, "girdling" the tree. My guess is that since the bark is destroyed, nutrients cannot get to the rest of the tree, killing it.

There's also good information at

http://ext.nrs.wsu.edu/info/fhn/mtpinebt.html

but a quick search on google will show you both of those. The beetles are, at adult size, about 1/5" in length (1/2 centimeter) and are considered the most damaging bark beetle. According to the US Forestry Service, they were responsible for the destruction of nearly 300,000 trees in 1990. 1991 was even worse.

Pretty destructive little buggers...

09-10-2001, 11:51 AM	#2
dave Guest Posts: n/a	I had to know more about this, so I went and did some quick reading. From http://www.forestry.ubc.ca/fetch21/F...osae/pine.html (also has some decent pictures) -- the beetles "attack" trees and lay egg "galleries" about 3 feet (90 cm) long. When the larvae hatch, they chew the hell out of the bark, "girdling" the tree. My guess is that since the bark is destroyed, nutrients cannot get to the rest of the tree, killing it. There's also good information at http://ext.nrs.wsu.edu/info/fhn/mtpinebt.html but a quick search on google will show you both of those. The beetles are, at adult size, about 1/5" in length (1/2 centimeter) and are considered the most damaging bark beetle. According to the US Forestry Service, they were responsible for the destruction of nearly 300,000 trees in 1990. 1991 was even worse. Pretty destructive little buggers...