Harm from the bark beetle and measures to combat it in the garden and in the house

The bark beetle is a widespread pest of wood, capable of destroying huge tracts of trees in gardens and forests in a short time. It also causes great harm to wooden buildings.

Description of the pest

The subfamily of bark beetles has more than 3 thousand species, over 200 of them live in Russia. Most parasites spend their entire lives under the bark of trees. Bark beetles are small black or dark brown beetles with a characteristic bevel at the end of the body, which serves to remove wood waste. The bevel bordered by teeth is clearly visible in the photo of the beetle. By this description, bark beetles are easy to recognize.

Females gnaw a passage under the bark and lay eggs. The larvae hatch and begin to make moves on all sides of the uterine. Each larval move ends with an expanded chamber in which the larva pupates. The young beetles emerging from the pupae gnaw out the passage and fly out. They give 1 - 2 generations per year.

What harm do bark beetles bring

Both adults and immatures are dangerous for trees and wooden buildings. It is the larvae that do the greatest harm, since they feed on wood all the time until they pupate. Just a few larvae in a year can bring an adult tree to death.

Bark beetles in a house are capable of damaging the supporting structures so that a building, even a sturdy one, can collapse.

In addition to numerous passages in wood, the larvae carry fungal spores, which further accelerates the destruction of a structure or tree.

How to determine that a tree is infected with a bark beetle

It is rather difficult for a layman to do this. Usually the activity of bark beetles is noticed by the drill meal around the butt of the tree. Unfortunately, it washes off after the first rain.

It is necessary to periodically inspect the trees in the garden, noting the first grains of drill meal on the leaves or protrusions of the trunk, delayed development, small leaves, drying out individual branches. On close inspection, you can find streaks of fresh resin, flight holes in the bark. All these signs should indicate an infection of the tree with a bark beetle.

Inside a wooden structure, it is easier to detect the first signs of colonization by a bark beetle, since the drill meal is not washed off. The photo below shows single moves of the pest, but the wood is already seriously damaged:

If the log walls in the house are sheathed from the inside, regularly inspect the logs in the attic and underground. At the first suspicion, remove all finishing materials and carefully inspect the ceiling, walls and floors.

The presence of even separate passages on the surface of the logs suggests that they can be hopelessly damaged from the inside. In such cases, urgent measures must be taken to save the home.

We destroy the bark beetle in the house

There are several ways to save the house from destruction and destroy the pest:

• treat all wood with special protective agents;
• use folk methods - diesel fuel, kerosene, solid oil;
• freeze the house, as bark beetles die at -30 °, or warm up individual boards or pieces of furniture at + 65 °.

If there is a high probability that it was not possible to completely destroy the pest, call specialists. They use potent agents that are guaranteed to destroy the entire population.

How to deal with bark beetles in the garden

To destroy the pest in the garden, a mechanical method is quite effective - iron wire.Explore all the holes in the tree with a long piece of it. Then treat the trees with insecticide. This control measure is most effective during the summer. beetle... It coincides with the flowering time of trees and lasts until the end of summer.

You can also prepare and use a special solution:

• melt 6 parts of paraffin;
• add 3 parts of rosin and heat until boiling;
• add 10 parts of any vegetable oil to the solution and boil for several minutes.

For more effectiveness, you can add a little antifungal drug to the mixture.

With the resulting product, it is necessary to coat all the trees, and burn all the found beetles.

Pheromone traps are an effective tool in the fight against the bark beetle. They lure pests to one place where they are easier to kill. With the help of such traps, you can get rid of beetles not only in the garden, but also in the house.

At the same time, traps have several disadvantages:

• only sexually mature individuals flock to pheromone traps, the larvae cannot be destroyed in this way;
• with the help of traps, you can lure pests from all surrounding areas and worsen the situation.

In general, pheromone traps do a good job of attracting bark beetles and are a reliable means of dealing with them.

Prevention of wood contamination

The appearance of bark beetles in the house and in the garden is easier to prevent than to fight them. As a preventive measure, regularly inspect all trees in the garden and wooden structures and carefully choose building materials. After purchase, the wood should be treated with special agents. Choose them based on their purpose. So, logs and boards for a bath need to be treated only with special preparations. For ordinary buildings, the following tools are used:

1. Clipper - contains the active ingredient bifetrin. The product is designed for gnawing and sucking insects.
2. SENEZH INSA - the drug is non-toxic to humans and destroys bugs at all stages of development.
3. The "Antizhuk" remedy has a similar effect.

The last two products also have antiseptic properties, protecting wood from fungus.

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