How-To Features Tree Registry Register your trees for customized advice. These tiny insects lives revolve around elm trees. The female beetle tunnels into the tree between the bark and the wood and lays its eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae tunnel further into the tree in order to feed before emerging as mature beetles.
Adults feed in the crown of the tree, moving from tree to tree before breeding again.
If a beetle breeds or feeds in a DED-infected tree, the sticky spores of the fungus become attached to its back. When the beetle moves to a healthy tree, so too do the spores. There are two species of the elm bark beetle in North America the European and the Native elm bark beetles. The European is more temperature sensitive and lives mainly in southern regions. The Native is dominant in the mid-west.