Background on this Brooding Beetle

Once upon a time, the Mountain Pine Beetle maintained a peaceful coexistence with the pine forests of  British Colombia and the western United States. But troubled times are now upon the forests as the beetle populations grow at astonishing rates.

These basic black beetles, about the size of a grain of rice, have become a bother to these once balanced biomes. They feed upon trees of the pinus variety, particularly those that are fully grown. Such coniferous delicacies include lodgepole, ponderosa, and the wonderfully rare whitebark pines, within which they also make their homes.





As winter nears, their eggs are laid within the trees, beneath the protective pinus bark. If the larvae survive a winter's cold snap, they congregate amongst the stands and search for their next mark.










They carry along a blue stain fungi that attacks the root systems of trees and makes them more susceptible to pests. The MPB will attack healthy trees when their numbers increase, but find weaker mature pines to be best (Larsson 1983).







The death of these trees, historically, created a diverse forest landscape in the same way a small fire might. It opened up areas for new growth and provided snags and nutrients for easing the surrounding fauna's lifelong plight. But if the beetles become too numerous, the dying and fell trees become hazardous and threaten to ignite. Not only do the forests suffer, but local economies and climate are also doomed outright (Spross 2013).