Common insect pests are pinyon pitch mass borer, Ips beetles, pinyon tip moth, pinyon pitch nodule moth, pinyon needle scale, and pinyon spindlegall midge. To ensure optimum health, avoid wounding trees, choose an appropriate site, water properly, and give trees adequate space. Their dense growth habit provides good visual screening and wind protection, and they offer shelter and food for birds andother wildlife. Site selection and proper maintenance are important for tree health. This vascular disease causes extensive black staining of the sapwood in the root and lower stem before killing the sapwood.
Bark beetles tend to follow as secondary pathogens and eventually cause the death of the tree.
Affected trees usually are in a group. These are small, leafless, parasitic flowering plants that grow on branches and spread only to other pinyon pines. They kill slowly by robbing the tree of its nutrients and water. Reproduction occurs when sticky seeds explosively discharge from the plant and adhere to the branches and needles of their next host. The life cycle from germination to dissemination is six years.