Pine Beetles

What is a Pine Beetle?

Southern Pine Beetles (Dendroctonus frontalis), along with several other types of bark beetles, are known to attack and kill pine trees during periods of environmental stress. These beetles bore into the cambium in large groups, and disrupt nutrient and water movement, thus killing the tree. Several of these species also introduce a fungus, known as blue stain, which may kill a tree by clogging its vascular systems.

Pine bark beetle outbreaks are being fueled by drought conditions and other environmental stress factors such as wildfires and storms throughout the southeastern United States.

You can find more information about these bark beetles here!
http://extension.msstate.edu/content/bark-beetles-urban-pines. -Credit to Dr. Blake Layton, Dr. John Riggins, and all of our friends at the MSU Extension.

Common Symptoms of Pine Bark Beetles

These beetles will attack healthy pines, but severe environmental stress increases susceptibility. Individually attacked trees may look faded or have mixed tan and green needles progressing to red, followed by tree death over several weeks. Cream to red colored pitch tubes will be present in the lower bole of the tree. As water becomes limited, the pitch turns from cream to red and will be crumbly. Most of these beetles carry a fungus that serves as a food base for young larvae. The introduced fungus then adds to inhibited water transport ability and hastens tree mortality.

When to treat?

Late winter and early spring is the recommended time for injection treatments. However, injections can take place throughout the growing season. Trunk sprays are also an option most months out of the year.

Weed Warriors can help you take care of this problem

When you hire us you won’t have to worry about what product to buy, how much to use, when to use it, and how to apply it correctly and safely. We are licensed, bonded, and insured through the Mississippi Department of Agriculture for Lawn and Horticultural Pest Control.

Weed Warriors uses state-of-the-art treatment methods

Weed Warriors uses multiple approaches for the treatment of Pine Bark Beetles. Both of these treatments are on a per tree basis.

Our recommended treatment is a trunk injection of TREE-äge® G4 from Arborjet. This injection will provide up to two years of prevention.

Our bark banding of bifenthrin is effective only to the height we can spray to, which is around 30-40 feet. The residual on this treatment is 60 days.