Spruce beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) response to traps baited with selected semiochemicals in Utah.

Abstract

Spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby), populations periodically reach outbreak densities throughout the range of spruce, Picea spp., in western North America. During outbreaks it may kill thousands to millions of trees over vast areas, dramatically altering forest structure, composition, and ecological processes, thus impacting a variety of resource values (Schmid and Frye 1977, Veblen et al. 1991, Holsten et al. 1995, 1999, Ross et al. 2001). Current options for reducing negative impacts on resource values caused by the spruce beetle include harvesting high-risk trees, sanitation/salvage logging, insecticide applications to high-value trees, felling and removal of trap trees, lethal trap trees, burying infested material, and burning or removing bark of infested trees (Holsten et al. 1999). Resource managers have used mass trapping with semiochemical-baited traps to some extent, but further research is needed to make this treatment more effective. An attempt to mass trap spruce beetle in Alaska reduced the number of subsequent beetle-attacked trees compared with untreated control plots, but beetle catches were considered low relative to beetle populations in the area (Werner and Holsten 1995). In Utah semiochemical-baited traps were used in conjunction with felling and burning of infested trees and trap trees to effectively suppress an isolated spruce beetle population (Bentz and Munson 2000).

Citation

Ross, Darrell W.; Daterman, Gary E.; Munson, A. Steven. 2005. Spruce beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) response to traps baited with selected semiochemicals in Utah. Western North American Naturalist. 65(1): 123-126