Insects munch through
WASHINGTON - Their names
are hardly household words; gypsy
moth, spruce budworm, pine
beetle
But they’re gaining more
notoriety all the time as they
steadily chomp their way, through
million acres of forest each year.
They are, in terms of the
devastation they cause, the
nation’s most important forest
insect pests. Their legacy is a
multiplying patchwork of brown
and dying woodlands.
They’ve been around a long
time, and they’ll be around a lot
longer. Foresters have little hope
of eradicating them, only of con
trolling them and holding timber
losses to acceptable levels.
“Forestry is merely managing
death and disaster in the woods,”
says Lester A. DeCoster, a vice
president of the American Forest
Institute. “A forest is a continuing
process of death and rebirth and
disasters, and you try to manage
that in a way that fits your needs.”
“I'm not sure it’s a problem you
ever solve,” says Robert W.
Slocum Jr., manager of private
forest management for the
National Forest Products
Association. “You may tem
porarily abate it, but like the flu
bug and a few other things,
chances are the insects will
probably adapt eventually and say
with us in one form or another ”
Two U.S. Forest Service officials
who keep close tabs on what’s
eating the woods are entomologist
Thomas H Hofacker and
pathologist Robert C. Loomis.
They are co-authors of a report
on forest insect and disease
problems in 1983. Among their
findings:
I . GREY
2. REP
3. Y BUM
4. BLUE
5 . BROWN
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acres of forest
Gypsy moth larvae defoliated
about 2.4 million acres, mainly of
oaks, in hardwood forests from
Maine to Virginia, and as far west
as Ohio. The acreage was “down
dramatically” from the 8.2 million
acres defoliated by the insect in
1982.
The spruce budworm
defoliated nearly 6.5 million acres
of white spruce and balsam,
chiefly in Maine, after the pest
declined for two years in a row.
Western spruce budworm
defoliation of fir, larch, and
spruce, principally in Idaho,
“increased significantly” for the
second straight year to about 11
million acres.
Mountain pine beetle out
breaks covered 3.5 million acres,
mostly in Colorado, Montana,
Oregon, Utah, Washington, and
Wyoming.
Southern pine beetles at
tacked trees in 66 counties in eight
states, the second consecutive
annual increase; especially hard
hit were national forests in Texas.
Dozens of Diseases
These species are only a few
among the dozens listed in the
Forest Service report. Also in
cluded is an even longer list of
diseases, many of which work in
conjunction with insects to
decimate the forests.
Patient research continues, by
the federal government and by
industries and universities
Genetic improvements, new
biological and chemical -controls,
and improved aerial mapping are
a few of the preventive measures
being explored.
So are synthetic pheromones,
imitations of the chemicals
secreted by insects to send subtle
6. PEACH
7. GREEK!
8. LTVBROWN
9. LT. BLUE
10. LT. GREEN
Female gypsy moths lay clusters of eggs on a tree trunk. The eggs of these and
countless sister moths will hatch into voracious larve that will defoliate millions of acres
of U.S. hardwood forests. In 1983 the pests devoured some 2.4 million acres of foliage
from Maine to Virginia.
signals that govern everything
from their eating habits to their
sex lives
“Prevention is the thing we’re
trying to get,” says Loomis.
"When you really get into the big
outbreak, then your options are
cut, and you have to go into the
very controversial spraying
programs and that kind of thing.”
The best way to achieve
prevention, many experts agree, is
to manage the forests. Hofacker
uses the stricken stands of
lodgepole pines in the Rocky
Mountains as an example.
"The way to manage is not to
have these vast areas of trees that
are over 80 years old and have
relatively large diameters,” he
says. “Mountain pine beetle and
fire working together - the pine
Blend colors
beetle killing the trees, and fire
coming in after that, regenerating
these large areas of lodgepole pine
- have just set the stage for a
continuous series of epidemics.”
“In the West today,” writes
Forest Service entomologist Mark
D. McGregor of Missoula, Mont.,
' thousands of acres of gray trees
stand as skeletal evidence of
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