“Our research shows the beetle may successfully find and colonise felled or wind-snapped Sitka spruce as readily as cut Norway spruce, which may increase its establishment risk in Sitka-growing regions,” said the study lead, Dr Jozsef Vuts, a chemical ecologist at Rothamsted, one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world.
A beetle that has previously devastated Norway spruce populations across continental Europe has been found to be equally attracted to the Sitka spruce, a finding experts say could have significant implications for commercial forestry.
The team found the odours of aged wood from the two species of evergreen coniferous trees were equally attractive to the beetles, but that fresh Sitka spruce was more so than fresh Norway spruce.
Eight-toothed European spruce bark beetles are usually associated with windblown, damaged and recently felled spruce trees, where the insects build up numbers before moving on to attack adjacent live trees.
The eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle has now been found in the UK, raising fears for the Sitka, which accounts for a quarter of Britain’s forest cover and half its commercial forestry plantations.
