Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-12-21
FUNGUS CHECKS THE RAvAGEs
or Black Hills Timber Beetle-Intsrest-
Ing Article From Forest Depart


|
Ing Article From Forest Depart
ment.
The bark beetle which for several years
has been working havoc in the valuable
pine timber of the Black Hills, S. d., has
apparently been given a check by a
fungus which finds in the dying trees a
congenial place of Judgement, and at
the same time kills the beetles in the
bark. There is hope that the worst OF
the scourge in that region has passed.
For ten years this beetle has been
sweeping through the Black Hills for
ests, every year invading fresh areas.
The total amount of pine destroyed by
it is reckoned at not less than one bill
lion feet board measure. Atthe present
stumpage price of green timber in South
Dakota this loss would amount to SC, 900, :
900. 1t now appears that its maximum
destructiveness was reached about two
years ago, and it is now on the decline.
Two years ago the discovery was made
that fungus was at work in the timber
killed by the beetles, in which the broods
were passing their infant stages prepar-
atory to taking flight to new forests. 1t
was noted at that time that the fungus
was fatal to the young beetles, but the
full extent of the work done by the fun
gus has just been made known in a re-
port covering investigations Of many
months by the Forest Service.
The fungus is "bark-peeler." Ex-
perts have claimed all the time that the
beetles could be checked if some way
could be found to peel the trees in which
the young broods are harboring. They
live in the inner bark and next to the
wood. When the bark is separated from
the wood their galleries are laid open
and they die. Efforts have been made
in the affected districts to peel standing
trees. Machinery has been made for
that express purpose and trunks were
stripped to the height of 20 feet. But
so large are the affected areas that the
few trees peeled were not drop in the
bucket.
Efforts were made at different times
to cut the dying timber. Tracts we're
sold to mill men. and large quantities
were cut, but not enough to have any
appreciabe effect upon the beetle inva-
sion. Woodpeckers helped the work
along. They flocked to the dying trees
by hundreds and stripped them of their
bark and devoured the young beetles by
the million, but that was not enough.
The pest had gained such headway that
1t was beyond the power of barkpeelers,
log cutters and woodpeckers.
Meanwhile the peculiar fungus was
gaining headway and getting in its
work 1t appears in the form Of a gray
ish slime between the bark and the
wood. 1t makes the bark loose and it
falls, leaving the trees bare, and bring
ing down the mutitudes of young beet.
les to their certain death I; or, if the bark
still hangs to the trunks, the effect on
the beetles is equally fatal, for they die
in their galleries and larva mines
The habits and life history of this
bark beetle render it defenseless when
attacked by the fungus. The parent
beetle bores gallery several inches long
in the inner layers of bark, growing the
wood. Eggs are deposited at intervals
along both sides of the gallery, often as
many as 60 or 20. These eggs hatch,
and while in the larval state, they bore
short galleries at right angles to the par
ent tunnel. They remain there a year,
eating and growing. Their depreda.
tions kill the most vital part of the tree
the cambium, through the tops and
needles do not succumb at once, and il
is at that stage that the fungus
appears and brings the career of the
beetle brood to close.
In normal conditions it probably finds
few lightning-struck trees in the prop
er decline to suit its purposes, or it may
dIldCh SlOi itlIOWu II blibOCI, Uub IL 10 iIOt
numerous enough to kill trees, and its
invasion cam OF gain headwsy. But
when some unusual condition, such as
a hurricane sweeping over timbered
area, provides start, the beetles may
increase in numbers until they are able
| to attack vigorous trees and kill them
and in fact when the epidemic is at its
height they almost invariably attack liv'
ing trees.
That ia what has happened in the
Black Hills. The invasion continues
until some enemy reduces the beetles
below the point where they are able tc
kill timber.
That puts an end to their invasion
This is apparently, what the fungus il
accomplishing in the Black Hills at THU
time