A new and potentially serious pest of spruce, pine and fir trees has been detected in the Dunes National Lakeshore near Porter, IN. The new beetle – the Spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) – prefers weakened, dying or injured spruce trees, and pine trees for its host material. The beetle is a relative of the pine shoot beetle discovered in Indiana three years ago. Both beetles come to the United States from Europe, probably associated with dunnage (pieces of lot with bark and bracing used in a ship’s hold).

A single Spruce bark beetle was detected in a trap placed by the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology. The Spruce bark beetle is a small black beetle about the size of a sharpened pencil point, and lives in evergreen species.

This new finding is of national interest because this species is not yet established in the United States, although it has been intercepted in two other states in the past two years. Neither of those interceptions were associated with established populations. Establishment of the Spruce bark beetle would represent a serious economic threat to the nation and Canada’s timber and pulp production.

Although only one beetle has been detected in a trap in Indiana, the USDA and IDNR are placing more traps in a 10-mile radius from the find and will survey stands of pines and spruce within a 250 mile radius of the find.

"This is basically the same procedure that is used in any initial new pest interception," said Robert D. Waltz, State Entomologist. "We need to determine if additional beetles are in Indiana and, if so, where." Indiana lacks suitable host material which may work against establishment of the beetle, Waltz said. Indiana is not a state with significant acreage of unmanaged pine or conifer stands and even less spruce and fir. It is possible, according to some foresters, that healthy blue spruce and Norway spruce used in landscapes throughout the state might serve as trap trees for the Spruce bark beetle. The beetle may be drawn to healthy host material and not be capable of overcoming the trees defensive mechanism, thereby killing the beetles." Waltz said.

Traps will be set out in the next two weeks. Nursery men and Christmas tree growers will be contacted and state properties with stands of pines or spruce will be identified for trapping sites. Cooperative efforts among specialists in USDA-APHIS-PPQ, the US Forest Service, US Department of the Interior, and the IDNR will guide and develop the Indiana response.