Removing a tree killed by pine bark beetles

Pamela05

We lost the pine tree at the corner of our property and will be calling a company to remove it.  What should I expect that they do to it so that the beetles don't go on to infest other trees in the city?  Every tree removed in the city ends up at the mulch yard somehow (you can take it there or we have debris pickup) so I don't know what can be done to keep the stupid things from making a new home in another tree (like mine when I go get free mulch!).

underthebridge09

Go talk to your local Department of Agriculture.  They're also pesticide in most states.  They'll give you a game plan on what to use, when, and how to prevent.  Usually if you walk in they can tell you right on the spot. 

puddlejumper

I live in an area that has been absolutely devastated by mountain pine beetle - 1000's of square kilometers of dead forest...it's pretty sad.  I've been working on some projects with gov't foresters and biologists about the severity ranking of the beetle attack in various parts of my region and have learned a bit from them about the attack phases.  If it's the same sort of cycle your tree has gone through it may help:

The stages are:

1. Green attack - tree is still alive, needles are green, there is some indication of beetle activity such as sawdust piles and holes in the bark.  Beetles are still present and a threat to surrounding trees
2. Red attack - tree is dead but still has it's needles, needles are partly or completely red (due to lack of moisture), some beetles still present as bark/phylum is still a food source
3. Grey attack (aka dead dead dead) - tree has lost most of it's needles and is basically a dead standing tree with little root integrity.  Few if any live beetles present.

One thing they've found around here that really helped spread the beetle infestation was the practice of transporting logs long distances along highways.  It used to be that wood had to be milled somewhat locally, but now it is being transported 100's of km from cutblock to sawmills and spreading the beetle along the way.  There have been suggestions that de-barking the trees at the site they were cut would have drastically reduced the severity of infestation, but logging companies protested due to the logistics/$$$ to do it.

Anyway, to make a looooong story short, if your tree is in the green attack/red attack stages, de-barking it at your house and burning the bark would stop the beetles from getting into the local mulch supply and spreading the infestation.