SANTA FE — They’re back — the same species of bark beetle that decimated New Mexico’s piñon trees a decade ago.
Local arborists say populations of the insect, also known as the ips or the engraver beetle, began increasing alarmingly at the summer’s end.
“Fortunately, their populations didn’t explode until right at the very end of this season,” said Rich Atkinson of Southwest Trees and Landscape. “If they had gotten going in the beginning, we’d be in greater trouble. Now, at least, folks can have warning and do something about it before (the beetles) emerge in the spring.”
Robert Coates of Coates Tree Service said the main difference from the beetle infestation a decade ago is that the current one comes as the Santa Fe area finally is getting lots of rain.
“We’re hoping and praying that this summer rain continues and we have a lot of snow this winter, and this thing doesn’t break out like it did before,” he said. “So far, basically, what we’re finding is clumps of a half-dozen (infested) trees here and there.”
Atkinson, Coates and other local tree experts say irrigating or applying insecticide can deter the beetles from infesting drought-stressed piñons. But once they have infected a tree with the blue-stain fungus they carry, the tree usually dies. The fungus retards the flow of moisture under the bark from the roots to the upper regions of the trees.
“The fungus basically shuts down all the flow and corrupts the transmission of fluids,” Atkinson said. “Once the beetles are in, the tree is dead — endgame. The only thing you can do for your trees is basically try to prevent their chewing into the tree. And the only way to do that is to hydrate it to the point where its sap flow will spit the insect right back out — that’s the natural defense — or coat it with chemicals.”
