- The mountain pine beetle is a small, dark-coloured, cylindrical beetle, about the size of a grain of rice.
- The Latin name for the mountain pine beetle is Dendroctonus ponderosae.
- Adult beetles are black, stout-bodied, cylindrical, and 4.0–7.5 mm long.
- The life span of an individual mountain pine beetle is about one year.
- Pine beetle larvae spend the winter under bark. They continue to feed in the
spring and transform into pupae in June and July.
- Adult mountain pine beetles emerge from an infested tree over the course of the
summer and into early fall.
- The mountain pine beetle transmits a fungus that stains a tree's sapwood blue.
- Comprehensive testing has confirmed that the blue stain caused by the beetle
has no effect on wood's strength properties.
- Flight period begins in mid July and lasts until late August. This may vary with local climates.
- It's ideal climate habitat includes windfall and weak or overmature trees with a DBH of more than 15 cm.
- Adults transport spores of the blue stain fungi to new trees within a
specialized sac (mycangium) in the mouth area. These fungi are believed to stop water
transport in the stem and thus kill infected trees.
- Larvae are creamy-white, legless grubs with light brown heads, and they are 6–7 mm long when fully grown
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