Keeping Tabs on the Beetle
June 22, 2015 12:00 pm Leave your thoughts
After a long couple weeks of waiting for forest fires in Millar Western’s FMA near Whitecourt, Alberta we were given a much needed dose of rain which gave us the opportunity to try out new things. The task handed down to me and my crew was the setup of Millar Western’s Mountain Pine Beetle monitoring program. This program was established in order to monitor Mountain Pine Beetle populations in Millar Western’s various log yards and other areas within the FMA.
Set up first consisted of setting up stands, traps, baits, and pesticides. Stands were put in place around the perimeter of each log deck site which was selected for monitoring spaced at approximately 50 meters. Each stand was then fitted with three traps which are designed to make access for the beetle easy but escaping difficult. The traps are collapsible and contain a cup at its base which collects the beetles that enter the trap. The cup at the base of the trap allows for the insects which find their way inside to be counted and identified easily.
The next step in the setup process was hanging the baits to the traps to attract the Mountain Pine Beetle. The baits we used were designed to attract mates to a host tree where they would reproduce. The baits will get the “love stricken” beetles inside of the trap and they will be killed by the pesticide used inside the cup. Along with the setup GPS coordinates of each trap were taken to provide us with exact locations of each trap and so that we can develop maps of areas which have shown signs of high or low mountain pine beetle susceptibility.
All the traps had been installed and fitted with baits this past week and they will be monitored each week for the next few months to find fluctuations in populations and how they are affected by weather conditions. Each week the traps will have their populations counted and each species of insect are to be identified.
The Mountain Pine Beetle program established by Millar Western is very exciting to me in the sense that I get to witness on a weekly basis how quickly populations are growing and developing an understanding of the magnitude of Mountain Pine Beetle which has become a concerning issue in Alberta. I’m very keen to get more hands on experience with observing the species in the field and being a part of fight to stop the spread of the beetle.