What are bark beetles and how to get rid of them?

The bark beetle infects wood - both living plants and products from it: buildings, logs, boards. In a short period, the pest destroys hectares of forests, damages household plots, and turns wooden houses and other buildings into ruins. Consider the ways and methods of a difficult human struggle with a harmful insect.

Bark beetles are small insects of dark brown or black color. Their feature is the presence of a bevel at the bottom of the body, necessary to push the waste of gnawed wood outward. Small sawdust, similar to white, brown flour, is the main evidence of the presence of pests.

It is worth noting that adults are not as destructive to forests and fruit seedlings as the larvae emerging from eggs laid by the female in the gnawed holes under the bark. They grind through the tree, forming passages in the trunk. Since the stage is long, irreparable damage to green spaces is caused. When the larvae become pupae, and then beetles, they gnaw through the holes and get out. Bark beetles are fertile: up to 2 new generations appear in a year, they harm both living wood and everything that is made of it.

The most famous and common types:

• barbel;
• grinder;
• home;
• woodworm.

Barbel - a rather large insect, whose body is painted black with a green tint, looks impressive. By the name it is clear that the beetle has a mustache, and the length is longer than the body. Lives in conifers, loves to eat young shoots of oak. The beetle has powerful jaws that can bite through human skin, but it has nothing to inject into the wound, so you should not be afraid of poison. One of the representatives of the barbel species, the strigun, bites. The grinder is small in size, the body is brown, red-brown, elongated, with a convex head sunk into the hood. Its larvae often start in houses, spoil furniture, window frames, floors, doors, for which the beetle is also called a furniture bark beetle.

Home bark beetle - a small insect with a shiny dark brown body, short legs and antennae, similar to clubs. Its larvae are white or yellowish, without legs, with powerful jaws, they easily bite into a tree. Pests enter the dwelling with affected building materials or poor-quality finished wooden products. Woodworm is a small beetle with a shiny black body covered with brown hairs. Prefers conifers with thick bark, loves fresh stumps and young growth. Despite its small size, it can cause enormous damage to forest plantations.

Bark beetles appear in wooden houses and other buildings due to the use of contaminated wood. If they have recently settled, it is difficult to notice the presence of pests. Beetles do not catch the eye, rarely leave their habitat, if they leave, then at night. Signs of their presence in the house, in the bath will be revealed later.

The fact that a beetle has wound up in a wooden product is evidenced by the appearance on the surface of round holes with small sawdust lying next to it, similar to flour. At night, quiet sounds are heard, similar to the rustling or ticking of a clock.Having noticed the houses of unwanted inhabitants, it is necessary to carefully examine all the wooden surfaces, and start fighting the bark beetle before it is too late.

Bark beetles not only live in wood, they feed on it, from which green spaces die, furniture and residential buildings become unusable. The danger for the tenants of a wooden house becomes real when the beetle larvae hit floors, rafters and other supporting structures, gradually turning them into dust. If urgent action is not taken, ceiling beams or partitions gnawed by a pest will fall and the house will collapse. Bark beetles are also carriers of the fungus; if infected, housing will quickly become emergency. They cause serious damage to the forest, parkland, gardens and personal plots.

Beetles feed on live and chopped wood, love conifers, but do not avoid deciduous species. They often attack diseased plants first. In the garden, the bark beetle settles inside fruit trees, penetrating through the damage to the trunk and destroying them. Therefore, it is important to regularly inspect the plantings, cover up the wounds and cracks, and whitewash the trunks with lime annually. The destruction of spruce and pine by stem pests became a real disaster. For protection, it is necessary to carry out complex measures for the treatment of the forest.

It is not so easy to remove pests, although the arsenal of means is sufficient. It is necessary to choose a method, taking into account the situation, the degree of infection and the possibility of using any means. In case of severe damage, this part of the wood is removed by cutting or sawing. A new element is installed in place, the patient is burned. The method is not effective enough: it is not suitable for structures located in the attic, on the ceiling and does not guarantee complete removal of the affected area. There are other pest control products available.

There are a large number of fast-acting and effective preparations for the destruction of bark beetles in the form of granules or emulsions, such as Confidor Extra, Dr. Klaus, "BI-58 New" and others... When using chemicals in a private wooden house, you should be careful, observe precautions: study the instructions for use and strictly follow it, correctly calculating the dosage.

They fight insects using baits consisting of a plastic container with a plate impregnated with a scent that attracts beetles. Having flown inside, they will not be able to get out. But only adult specimens fall into the trap, the larvae remain inside the tree. These traps are better for the garden.

You can get rid of pests in an apartment using a microwave emitter of high frequency electromagnetic waves. Under its influence, the wood heats up to +60 degrees, at this temperature not only adult bark beetles die, but eggs and larvae. This is the best way to poison harmful insects, do it safely and effectively. If these methods do not help or seem to be too long, they turn to professionals who have powerful drugs, special equipment and use modern methods. Wooden surfaces of the house will be treated with phosphine - a gas that quickly and reliably destroys pests of any stage of development located there. The substance is toxic, the use requires calculation, compliance with safety measures and equipment, therefore it cannot be used on its own.

In woodlands, the fight against bark beetles consists in treatment with insecticidal and biological preparations by spraying, injections into the trunk and similar methods. Traps and baits are also used. If a spruce or pine tree is severely infected, their treatment is ineffective and has no prospect of survival. Such trees are removed so that the infection does not spread further.The degree of damage is determined by the bark: if no resin flows out of the holes, the conifer is not only populated with larvae, adults have formed from them and left it to capture other trees. The damage from these insects is not limited to stem damage. To completely destroy the spruce, they infect the tree with a fungus. Pines suffer from the bark beetle, which does not hesitate to eat young shoots.

The tree's defenses weaken, the beetle populates it completely and brings it to death. In woodlands, planned control of the bark beetle is carried out year-round, starting in spring: conifers are examined, holes and cracks are covered, damaged bark is cleaned off to avoid further infection. In the summer, they check the places of appearance of possible foci, carry out their processing, in the fall they prepare the plants for winter, some cover them. The territories are regularly cleared of dead wood and felling waste.

And they will also help get rid of the mixture of bark beetles, made with your own hands from kerosene and turpentine, diesel fuel, solid oil. Wooden surfaces are treated with a brush or a spray bottle, you can inject the agent with a syringe directly into the passages. After the procedure, the holes found are filled with sealant so that the remaining individuals cannot get out. In the northern regions, they freeze houses so that the bark beetles die at a temperature of -30 degrees. Or, conversely, they heat boards, logs, furniture up to +65 degrees for the same purpose.

When the first signs of damage to trees by the bark beetle are found, it is necessary to begin to get rid of the pest that can destroy them. Having examined the surface of the trunk, you can determine the size of the damage: if the sawdust or drill meal is brown, the beetle gnawed only the bark, if it was white, it began to sharpen the wood. As a result, the trunk dries up, leaves and needles fall off. When the bark falls off in chunks, the tree is dead. To prevent this from happening, measures are taken immediately.

You can kill the beetles yourself by collecting them by hand or in scented traps. They are placed in a sealed container, then incinerated. From the holes in the bark, insects are taken out with a metal wire, it will help to get to the larvae. Then, a protective agent that kills pests is injected with a syringe into each stroke of the bark beetle. The holes must be covered with garden pitch. This method of administration of the drug ensures its effectiveness for up to 1 year. The method is used for apple, pear and other fruit plantings. It is important to act competently, using the technology correctly, so as not to harm the landings. They also systematically process fruit and coniferous trees, trying to spray them with insecticides against damage by stem pests. In this case, only adults die. The pine tree, the planting of which suffers from the bark beetle, requires special attention.

Folk methods of pest control in the garden are also used, but due to their low efficiency, they serve as a preventive measure to scare off the bark beetle and protect the garden. To do this, they monitor the condition of the trees: they process, disinfect, cover up wounds, cracks, coat the trunk with a mixture of humus and clay, use trap logs.

In order not to wage a difficult fight against the harmful bark beetle, you need to follow the rules for controlling wood, materials and products from it. When buying a wooden house, all surfaces are checked, and they are treated with an antiseptic before moving in. When purchasing wood for construction, they choose dry, clean wood. Boards, slabs, lining are treated with an insecticide, then impregnated with a protective compound.It is better to buy furniture and other wood products from trusted manufacturers, carefully examining the purchase. In a wooden house, high humidity should not be allowed, the dwelling should be ventilated, the temperature regime should be observed.

In order to prevent the appearance of a pest in the garden, one must not forget about prevention.... It is necessary to regularly inspect fruit and conifers for the timely detection of the bark beetle. Do not forget to remove dried, diseased branches, peel the bark, whitewash the stem with lime, cover up the wounds, remove fallen leaves. The following methods will help to get rid of bark beetles. It is better to use them comprehensively, combining mechanical, the use of chemicals, microwave radiation, folk methods. It is important to start the fight earlier, then less time and effort will be needed.