This site is presented as a resource for those looking for the best sites to learn about the Mountain Pine Beelte as well as those looking for Verbenone Pouches to protect their property and trees.
Read the article below and use the links in the menu bar above to visit sites we think are the the best mountain pine beetle informational sites for the lay person. Kill-Pine-Beetles.com will tell you how they do their damage. How to manage your forest to keep them in check. What tools we have to fight them. What to do with Pine Beetle infested wood. And many, many more mountain pine beetle facts. Mountain-Pine-Beetles.com also has great information and lots of images of pine beetle symptoms.
Verbenone, the tiny, all-natural, tree-mounted pouch that repels pine beetles, is easy to use and effective at discouraging pine beetle infestation. In the past it has cost more than spraying poisons. Not now!
Our volume purchasing power has brought the prices down to an all-time low! 
Bark Beetles (including Mountain Pine Beetles) are changing North American Forests. What can we do?
Change is occurring in our precious forests. On the landscape level there is little that can be done, short of learning the lessons that nature provides. On small acreages MUCH can be done to protect high value stands from pine beetle attack. No matter how red the hillsides, you can keep your forest patch green by following these 4 simple strategies.
1. Knowledge. The more you know the better able you will be to defend your trees from pine beetle attack. Remember, pine beetles have always been here. They are a natural part of forest renewal. Large outbreaks have occurred before. However, the current epidemic(s) are by far the largest in recorded history.
So what changed? The answer isn't simple and straight forward. It's certain that humans have changed the forests from their "natural" state. Logging practices, taking fire out of ecosystems (demanded by the public after WWII), or burning off huge tracts so that we might find mineral wealth have all changed forest structure. Monoculture is rarely good yet nature does just that. In BC where I live we ended up with a province full of dense, even-aged mature Lodgepole Pines. Guess what bark beetles like? Mountain Pine Beetle has had a "wonderful "decade" in BC, killing 17 million hectares of mature Pines.
2. Practice Integrated Pest Management. IPM is an array of complimentary strategies designed to control but not eradicate a pest. By definition IPM uses the least toxic methods of controlling pests and ramps up from there until desired results are obtained. It does not exclude the use of toxic controls. IPM stresses cultural ideas that keep your forest healthy. Healthy forests can often defend against pine beetles.
Spraying toxic chemicals is one way to control bark beetles, but it comes with an environmental cost. The most common tree bole sprays are Carbaryl and the pyrethroids, Permethrin and Bifenthrin. They come in many formulations and trade names. Carbaryl is a cholineterase inhibitor and likely carcinogen, the pyrethoids are neurotoxins. All are extremely toxic to fish, aquatic insects and beneficial insects. Honey Bees and other insects forage on pine trees in spring. Good sprayers can mitigate these risks. If you must use sprays, use them only on the highest value trees and only in the peak years of a beetle epidemic. Do not spray needlessly after the infestation has passed by. Sprayers by law have to take blood tests to see if they exceed toxic thresholds in their blood. Does this sound like something you would use?
3. Cultural treatments. Pine beetles like dense stands. Opening up your stands helps to "beetle proof" them. Forester's have a way of describing how open a stand should be... basal area. Less than 100 sq. ft. of treed basal area per acre measured at breast height is about right. Some foresters suggest even less. Opening up your stands does other things: It raises the temperature on the forest floor, it allows the wind to blow through, and it changes the way beetle aggregation pheromones work when attack occurs. As a general rule your stand should have a spacing of 25-30 ft. between trees. When you thin-out a stand you will notice more new growth on the "released" trees after a couple of years. That's a good sign; you're doing the right things! Watering your trees during hot, dry spells is a cultural treatment. Water thoroughly and not too often.
If your stands are dense, it's OK to lose a few trees to beetle attack. Think of it as just nature doing its thing. BUT, there is one rule of IPM that is above all others. When attack occurs you must be able to recognize, remove and properly dispose of all mass attacked trees. Walk your stand every year, preferably in the fall. If you find attack, flag the trees for removal well before next summer's beetle flights. Do not allow the beetles to become established on your property. There is no way I know to stress this simple point enough!
4. Pheromones. Verbenone is a NON TOXIC anti-aggregating pheromone specific to Mountain Pine Beetles. Under moderate beetle pressure it will make a difference - often a large difference compared to untreated control areas next door. It's important to learn how to use it properly and practice the other IPM principals. Verbenone comes in pouches that you nail (always) to the north side of the trees you want to protect. If you only have a few trees, every tree gets a pouch. If you live on acreage, deploy the pouches on a grid. Thirtyfive (35) pouches per acre is about right. Coincidentally that works out to a 35 foot grid. Maintain the grid as accurately as you can. (It's OK to put the pouches on other species of trees or objects to maintain the grid.)
Pine Beetles use aggregating pheromones to start and maintain a mass attack. Verbenone works in the opposite way: it is naturally produced when the beetles begin to overpopulate a mass-attacked Pine. It's complicated; the short of it is the beetles slightly change alpha pinene (host volatile) into Verbenone. This anti-aggregating "scent" blows downwind and signals to arriving beetles that the tree is full and it's time to start an attack on a fresh tree. Unless Verbenone pouches are present to "confuse" arriving beetles, the new attack is often close by. Bark beetles have a limited amount of "fuel" called lipids. The longer they fly around looking for a suitable host tree, the weaker they become. Ultimately they disperse; die or other critters gobble them up. Application dates for the Verbenone are usually the first week of July. Remember always on the north side out of the sun which helps control the release rate. Please, order early to ensure an adequate supply.
For More Pine Beetle Information