For The Forest

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For The Forest

Treating Your Trees

If you have identified infected trees, the following information will help you understand what to do with the infected trees and how to take the next steps.

Once infested, there is no way to save the affected pine. Options are to have infested trees removed by qualified professionals before the beetles emerge, which, generally speaking is best done in the fall, winter, or early spring months. If left standing, the brood of insects will emerge and attack other nearby trees, progressively making the problem worse by expanding the beetle infestation to surrounding trees. Its important to realize that merely cutting down the tree does not eliminate the beetles, they will remain viable under the bark and will still emerge and attack standing trees. So, if the goal is to reduce the number of infested trees, removing and properly treating the removed trees is a key management strategy. Combining infested tree removal with conventional insecticide spray of residual trees in the stand or the use of verbenone, applied to the tree in a pouch or as flakes on the ground or directly to the trunk of the tree is more effective than using either method alone. Verbenone is a natural pheromone that affects the flight and tree attack behavior of the MPB by causing it to seek another tree.

click here to learn more about verbenone

Basically, there are two keys to protect pine trees from the MPB: verbenone and brood tree removal. To be effective, these two measures must be used together in an integrated plan for several years, until the epidemic passes by a particular area (as it eventually will). While no approach will protect all the pine trees in an area from the MPB epidemic, integrated pest management programs have shown success in saving many trees in a local forest area.

Unlike pesticides, verbenone doesn't kill the pine beetles, it simply confuses them by sending out a false signal that the tree is already full of MPB and that beetle must find a different tree to inhabit. Since beetles cannot fly very long, when verbenone "confusion" prevents a beetle from landing on a tree, it may use up its energy reserves and simply fall to the ground and die.

The principal advantage of using verbenone instead of pesticides is that verbenone is non-toxic and harmless. The bottom line is that replacing toxic pesticides with verbenone protects the environment from dangerous chemicals while also protecting the tree from beetle infestation.

Brood tree removal is straightforward, but the trees must be removed before the beetle flight season. This usually begins in July, but it can definitely start earlier in some areas. After felling an infested tree, one must take care not to let the beetles fly out from the tree. That means milling it, chipping it, stripping the bark, floating the tree in water, burning the bark, using solar energy to kill the beetles by setting the logs out in the sun and rotating them every few days, wrapping the logs in plastic, etc., etc. Do not simply cut the tree into firewood to be taken to someone's home. That simply transports the beetles to a new area they can attack!

BROOD TREE REMOVAL

Trees need to be disposed of in an approved manner that does not spread the pest to other locations. Options include transporting the logs to an area where there are no host trees or removing the bark mechanically and chipping it up, which destroys the larvae and exposes the rest to the air, desiccating and thus destroying them.

Other options are:

Fell the trees, debark on site and leave them in place, although this may increase fuel loading.

Fell the trees and wrap them tightly in heavy plastic sealing the logs all around. This will allow the sunlight to heat the logs sufficiently enough to kill the larvae in the tree. The downside of this is the difficulty of wrapping the logs without the right equipment, the possibility of tears in the plastic, possibility of inadequate heating and the need to deal with the logs following the killing period.

Fell the trees, move them to a central site and burn them. Of course this requires professional expertise, permits and a suitable place to do so.

Fell the trees, remove and chip the slash (i.e., branches and small limbs) and utilize the logs as firewood (after debarking), or as logs for lumber products.

TREE CARE SERVICE PROVIDERS IN AND AROUND THE ROARING FORK VALLEY

ABC Tree & Lawn Care - Carbondale - 970.963.4414
American Tree and Landscape - Carbondale - 970.963.2497
Aspen Tree Service - Carbondale - 970.963.3070
Prima Plant Services - El Jebel - 970.963.6113
Roaring Fork Vegetation Management - Carbondale - 970.963.9723
Paul Scrivens Landscape & Tree Removal - Basalt - 970.948.1713
Western Timber Management - Basalt - 970.274.0120

VERBENONE

Verbenone does not kill the beetles like an insecticide , rather it alters their behavior, and so it is not reasonable to directly compare these two chemical means of bark beetle control. Research and empirical experience suggest that verbenone works best when combined with infested tree removal in a stand. The proper use of verbenone requires planning and doing a layout appropriate to the stand of trees o designated for protection. This should be done by professionals trained and experienced in its use. Haphazard deployment the pheromone will result in greatly reduced efficacy. As a general rule, verbenone is applied to an area at a given concentration of active ingredient per acre. So this means that it is applied to an area, in a pre-determined pattern - not just to or near particular trees. The idea being to get uniform distribution of the product, which when exposed to the air, begins to volatilize or gas out until the supply of active ingredient in the pouch or flake product is exhausted.

Verbenone can be applied in at least three ways:

Stapling a verbenone pouch to the bark of a tree approximately 6 or 8 ft up the
trunk.

Spreading verbenone flakes on the floor of a forest area (by ordinary hand-cranked fertilizer dispenser or by aircraft)

Spraying sticky verbenone flakes on the bottom 20' of the tree trunk

Spraying sticky verbenone flakes has been shown to be extremely effective at saving trees from pine beetle mortality. The key to success, again, is using verbenone in an integrated program with infested tree removal.

Click here for more information on Verbenone and to find out where to get Verbenone in the Roaring Fork Valley