Is it Mountain Pine Beetle? - Mountain Pine Beetle in Alberta

• Boring Dust
  • Collects in bark crevices and around the base of trees from beetle boring under the bark.
    • Boring Dust
• Pitch Tube
  • Cream coloured resin that looks like crystallized honey and oozes out of entry holes in the trunk. This is a natural defense to 'pitch' the beetle out.
    • Pitch Tube
• Blue Stain Fungi
  • Sapwood turns a grayish blue colour because beetles carry spores of blue-stain fungus that stains the wood.
  • As the infested pine tree begins to die, its needles will begin to turn yellow. Within one year, the entire tree will have red needles, and with more time, needles slowly fade and eventually turn gray.
    • Blue Stain Fungi
    • Red Needles

• J-Shaped Galleries
• Beginning above the entrance hole and running along the grain of wood are J-shaped galleries. Eggs are deposited within these galleries.
  • J-shaped Gallery