On the fight against bark beetles

A serious challenge for forest owners and foresters in Bulgaria is the fight against insect pests. Over the past 5-10 years, great damage has been caused by various types of bark beetles.These are mainly typographer - Ips typographus on spruce, apex bark beetle - Ips acuminatus Gyll on white pine and six-tooth bark beetle - Ips sexdentatus Boern, which occur on both tree species.The attacks occur in spring, when adult individuals attack the targeted trees. There they lay their eggs and begin to feed on the bark of the tree, thus depriving it of the opportunity to feed and absorb water. In the months of July and August, the already dying trees begin to appear. In hot summers, two generations of bark beetles can develop. The affected trees change the color of their needles and they themselves begin to shed their leaves. This process at high summer temperatures can take up to 2 weeks.The main difficulty in combating these pests is that by the time damaged trees are noticed, they are already doomed to death, and the adult bark beetles attack new trees. This makes combating them extremely laborious and not easy, and the damage caused can be extremely large.One of the main options for combating bark beetles is to set up pheromone traps and thus capture male individuals. One pheromone trap covers an area of 1 ha. and it is necessary to regularly remove the captured individuals and clean the trap itself. Covering an entire forest massif with pheromone traps is a rather expensive and difficult procedure.Another frequently practiced option is to remove the attacked trees from the forest as quickly as possible, to process the wood and thus destroy the pests themselves. To apply this method, each forest owner must have an approved plan-extract from the Regional Forestry Directorate, for forests that are not forested, or a prescription for sanitary felling must be issued by the Regional Forestry Directorate or Forest Protection Station. It determines the amount of wood to be obtained and the deadline for the felling. Then, the necessary "Leaving Permit" must be issued and the removal of damaged trees must begin. Sometimes the procedure itself is quite cumbersome and takes up to 3-4 weeks. This reduces the effect of removing bark beetles.As a preventive measure, you can avoid storing freshly cut wood in the forest for a long period, especially in spring, and apply regular field inspections, and after detecting affected trees, they must be removed as quickly as possible.SMURF project website https://www.smurfproject.eu/.Funded by EU #smurfproject #SmallForestHoldings #forestry #forestowners #profitability #smallforestowners #foresteufuture #forestmanagement #sustainability #forestnews #cascadefunding #closetonaturesilviculture