Pine Bark Beetles

Sherri:
Pine bark beetles. They’re a problem right now and they will continue to be. I’m Sherri with HomeShow Garden Pros, and I’m joined today with Ed Dolphin. He’s an ISA Certified arborist.
And Ed, homeowners, they walk out in their yard and they notice something wrong with their pine trees. What do we need to look for?

Ed Dolphin:
Typically, Sherri, the general homeowner doesn’t know there’s a problem until the tree is dead. They look out and go, “My tree is brown…

Sherri:
“Why is my tree brown?”

Ed Dolphin:
… What do I do?” Well, at that time it’s dead. But this is a great example because the tree in the background is completely dead, but the tree in the foreground is still alive. You see the branch that’s going out toward the roof of the building there, it’s still green. But as you go up the trunk, you can see where the next branch, it’s almost turning a gold color. And then toward the center, you can still see some green.
That tree is still alive, but could I save it? No, I couldn’t. I’d need to get involved a whole lot earlier than, wow, something’s wrong with my tree. What’s going on with it?
Is there anything that we can do to save the tree? If caught at the right time, yeah, there are, we can inject. But it’s not a guarantee. And that’s the whole thing.

Sherri:
And the reason the pine bark beetles are so active right now has a lot to do with our stressful summer and possibly even the winters before.

Ed Dolphin:
And the two winters before.

Sherri:
So stress response, they kind of put out a pheromone that says, “Come put me out of my misery.”

Ed Dolphin:
Right, yeah.

Sherri:
So things that we can do to prevent our healthy trees would be to get somebody like you to come and do a preventive?

Ed Dolphin:
You know what Sherri, the best thing you could do to start with is to make sure you’re putting on your grass quality products.

Sherri:
Right.

Ed Dolphin:
Unfortunately, so many problems that I see with trees, not just pine beetles, but oaks and all kinds of others, begin with what a homeowner puts on their grass. And trash in, trash out.

Sherri:
So we want healthy trees, use healthy products.

Ed Dolphin:
Yes.

Sherri:
Great. Well, you can hear more about this on HomeShow Garden Pros, Saturday mornings from 7:00 to 9:00.