FOREST INSECTS 83 



Hardtner of Louisiana has pointed out that, by burning areas of 

 great hazard during late afternoons on cold damp days in winter, 

 serious fire hazards may be reduced or eliminated. He now has in 

 Urania forest a fully stocked stand of 70,000 acres reproduced on 

 logged areas, which cannot be replaced for $20 per acre. He states 

 that the general public has a 90% interest in these values a stake 

 worth making a great effort to save. 



8. FOREST INSECTS 



Insects have done an enormous amount of damage to standing 

 timber, manufactured lumber, and various forest products. Insects 

 operate in a most insidious and oftentimes invisible manner. Hop- 

 kins estimated that the annual loss from forest insect depredations 

 amounted to more than one hundred million dollars, or a reduction of 

 10% in the value of the annual output of forest products. Insects 

 operate chiefly in mature and over-mature timber, forests injured or 

 killed by fire, and in many forms of forest products. 



The injury may result in deforming, weakening, or destroying 

 single trees or in the killing of a large portion of standing timber 

 covering thousands of acres in extent. Insects may become epidemic 

 at irregular intervals and then practically disappear. 



Furst has classified insects as follows: boring insects, which affect 

 the bark, sapwood, and heartwood; defoliating insects, which destroy 

 the leaves of trees; root-destroying insects; bud destroying insects; 

 seed-destroying insects; and those which cause deformation or mal- 

 formation. There are also insects, known as powder post beetles and 

 termites, which destroy or injure manufactured forest products. Some 

 of the species that have caused most serious damage are as follows: 



1. Gypsy moth and browntail moth introduced from Europe have 

 caused enormous damage in New England by eating the leaves of 

 both fruit and forest trees. Extensive funds have been appropriated 

 to suppress or check the spread of these insects by spraying-dusting- 

 creosoting and by parasite introduction. 



2. Southern pine beetle. This has done a vast amount of damage 

 in the South and Southeast, killing millions of feet of southern pine. 



3. Spruce budworm. This has been prevalent in the Northeast, 

 especially in Maine, destroying many thousands of acres of valuable 

 spruce balsam timber. 



4. Termites work up from the ground into wooden foundations and 

 do an enormous amount of damage in California and in the southern 

 portions of the country east of the Mississippi River. 



