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Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Inc.
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Death of a
Seventy Year Old Pine
Black Turpentine Beetle
This was a pine tree from just outside our door. My son woke me up at eight in the morning to tell me the "tree guys" were starting their saws, and the chipper was warming up. He knows I never take this very well.
I went and said good morning to the tree crew and started to argue about taking the tree down. The crew chief has dealt with me before :) It really must have been a sight, as I had run out there in my jammies and robe to yell at the man. :) I am not always charming when I first wake up, let alone on a morning that a very big tree is coming down.
God Bless the Crew Chief. He patiently let me rant for a few minutes and then calmly explained why the tree had to go. Around the base of the tree had formed different areas of a brown foamy material. We had noticed this, but as I had been too busy to check it out thoroughly, I wasn't aware of what it was. I had assumed it was a fungus, which can be treated.
What I learned however was that the larva of a borer beetle, called the Black Turpentine Beetle, bore into the bark and eat the heartwood of the tree, after the adults use the tree to lay their eggs. The foamy material was what they push out of the tunnels they create. The excessive feeding by the larva will quickly hollow the tree out. I had known about borers, of course, but hadn't (knowingly) seen a tree infected like this.
So, I was pretty humble when I took a closer look and saw the foamy goop was really much more extensive than I had noticed. This beetle only attacks this one particular type of pine and uses it as a host tree. Pinus rigida, or the Pitch Pine, the most common pine on Cape Cod, where we live. :)
I went back inside and let the men do their work. It was a Friday, and they left the grim reminder in the form of the downed trunk for the weekend. It gave me time to study it, to photograph it, to count the rings. I stopped at seventy, wondering what changes had passed in the landscape from the time this tree was a seedling.
On Monday, they brought a backhoe and picked it up and took it away.
On Tuesday I planted a tree right next to the stump.
Not another Pinus rigida, but a Salix discolor, a Pussy Willow. It's wide and full growth and cheery yellow winter/early spring flowers will eventually cover the spot. Choosing a species not susceptible to the Black Turpentine Beetle was horticulturally responsible.
My cheery Pussy Willow will never have the stature of the seventy year old pine.
Have you planted a tree lately?