The Southern Pine Beetle can be a costly pest, Foltz said. They recommend that all forest owners survey their property, as should homeowners who might have vulnerable loblolly pines, the beetles' preferred hosts. The Southern Pine Beetle is the most aggressive and destructive of five bark beetles that feed on southern pines, Foltz said. Using this approach during an outbreak in Gainesville in 1994 saved thousands of trees in the urban forest, minimized use of pesticides and saved money. Tree removal, however, sometimes is misunderstood, Foltz said, and in some communities, cutting down infested pines can cause controversy.
People sometimes have problems cutting down infested pines.
Leaving an infested pine in place only gives the beetles a platform for staging their attack on nearby healthy trees and can lead to the deforestation of surrounding acreage. It will not stop until it runs out of pines. Trees successfully colonized by the beetles cannot survive, regardless of control measures, like pesticides. The beetles also carry and introduce into trees the deadly blue stain fungi. Under normal conditions, the beetles dine only on stressed or damaged pines, but during outbreaks they attack healthy trees.