Beetle typographer - a big danger for coniferous trees

Naked red trunks, looking upwards, dry branches without a hint of pine needles ... Such a pattern can be observed sometimes in pine forests or spruce groves. It seems that someone deliberately pinched and destroyed the forest. In fact, the blame for all the wrecker - bug-typographer. The photos show that this is a small insect up to 5-5.5 cm in size, black or dark brown. Taurus and legs are covered with small hairs.

The name of the bug-typographer was due to the scientific descriptions of Karl Linnaeus. He noticed that the pattern that the bark beetle leaves on the cut resembles a skillfully applied decorative ornament, as if it were printed with a typographic machine.

The bark beetle-bug beetle is distributed practically on the whole continent of Eurasia, where the zone of temperate and subtropical climate is located. Have already brought it to North America. In a word, it can be found everywhere where there are coniferous trees, especially he likes spruce and pine.

The beetle-typograph is activated as soon as the sun warms, in April. He is very selective, he prefers adult trees with a thick bark, he will settle on young animals only if all the places are already occupied, lack of food can make him learn a freshly piloted stump, but he will not eat dry or rotten wood for any mushrooms. Here is a gourmet.

The beetle-typographer starts his activity with the fact that the male, after wintering, is looking for a suitable tree for feeding his offspring. Picking up a place, he begins to equip it. He does it this way. He gnaws in the trunk a small hole, where he invites several females. They find each other, emitting specific smells, which indicate the readiness to acquire progeny. Having fertilized and giving shelter, the male becomes unnecessary. The rest is done by females. They make passages and chambers where they lay eggs.

It is interesting that an adult beetle-typographer does not feed on wood . Making moves in the trunk of a tree, he is forced to dispose of the sawdust produced in the production process, each time pushing them to the beginning of the entrance in order to throw it away. After completing their hard work and laying eggs, males and females go to look for other places. Over the summer they manage to make three or four masonry.

They do not live in the trunk of trees, they do not need a lot of food, they can fly, so they are content with young coniferous shoots. But larvae are the most important pests. They go from egg to beetle in stages, in two months. The bark beetle leaves the pupa still soft, then several times molts and turns into an adult. The length of his life by the standards of insects is quite long. So, for the winter, a young beetle leaves, which will live until next autumn. They hibernate in the forest litter and can withstand temperatures of up to 30 degrees below zero. It happens that under the winter larvae and pupae leave, but in severe cold they die.

The beetle-typographer is a serious threat to coniferous forests. There are no chemicals that can affect its strength. Now there are ongoing developments to increase the population of natural enemies of bark beetles, which could reduce their population.