Larger 8 toothed Spruce bark beetle .

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, devon TWiG said:

It appears that  to leave deadwood , or create standing deadwood is particularly trendy at the moment ...for wildlife reasons ...

I don't expect it is deadwood that's a problem but that recently felled logs big enough to provide fresh breeding galleries that remain moist enough to support the grubs. If they are small they will dry quickly and the grubs cannot live on dry wood.

 

Similarly a healthy spruce will drown the bugs in resin but a sickly one will not. Insects seem to have a better ability to find a stressed tree to invade than us.

[spuddog0507]

17 hours ago, Stubby said:

Coppicing sweet chestnut here at the moment hundreds of posts stacked and pointed up . 

thats sweet chestnut, mostly spruce and a bit of dougles up here, 

[spuddog0507]

14 hours ago, openspaceman said:

How is that collected and chipped, it must be broke up and muddy?

usually done with a forwarder with a brash grab on it, one site a couple of year back they had a 20 tonne digger with a brash rake on it and only thig they left was the needles,, 

[Stere]

Quote

I don't expect it is deadwood that's a problem but that recently felled logs big enough to provide fresh breeding galleries that remain moist enough to support the grubs. If they are small they will dry quickly and the grubs cannot live on dry wood.

 

Similarly a healthy spruce will drown the bugs in resin but a sickly one will not. Insects seem to have a better ability to find a stressed tree to invade than us.

 

The gov info  mentions stacked wood piles

 

Eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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Information about the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle, including how to report sightings.

 

and that wood under 8cm diameter isnt a problem is mentioned here:

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63e3b965d3bf7f17300052c0/Ips_typographus_infographic_FINAL.pdf

 

 

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Stere said:

 

and that wood under 8cm diameter isnt a problem is mentioned here:

Yes but it doesn't explain why ; either it's because the cambium isn't thick enough to support a breeding gallery or because it becomes too dry for the grubs.

 

Back in the day when Thetford pine was coming on stream ( probably before the FC moved from scots pine to higher yielding corsican pine) there was a roundwood depot at Brandon. All the surrounding pine trees were stunted from chronic attacks from pine shoot moth (IIRC) that had bred in the timber stacks.

[slack ma girdle]

 

[Stere]

Loads of  plantations about  with the stuff it likes im wondering how   realistic it is  the above recommendations being enforced and effectively used  across the whole  area to control it. Could  end up like in Germany/europe for the UK....fairly fast it seems?

 

The climate /droughts etc seem critical

 

 

 

Fighting a losing battle

WWW.FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK

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The European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) has had a devastating impact on the forests of Germany. Rising...

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 08:31 by Stere

[openspaceman]

On 12/04/2025 at 09:31, Stere said:

 

The climate /droughts etc seem critical

Yes an if you look at our current demarcation area

You will see it  all in the dry eastern part of the country. It has long been known that spruce does less well here than in wetter parts, so spruce will be more stressed here during a summer drought and probably should not have been planted. It may have been that the then much vaunted, highly subsidised Shotton paper mill that opened in the early 90s persuaded woodland owners to plant spruce but as with poplar for matches the mill closed before the trees were ready.

 

I harvested thinnings of spruce within this area, normally planted in line mixture with oak, and occasionally would come across a live tree that looked little different from the rest of the spruce but was peppered with resin tunnels where the tree had  tried to drown the insect with resin. As a relative newcomer to forestry in the late 70s I had it explained to me that insects were far better at finding a stressed tree than we were. My manager in 1974 told me it was then company policy not to plant spruce in the south east.

 

 

Yesterday traveling south on the M23 just north of Pease Pottage I could see what looked like sparse spruce crowns.