Greetings from Estes Park!
Here in Estes, we are dealing with a pest called a "Pine Beetle". The trees affected are Ponderosas and Lodgepoles. Under normal conditiions, a fire would wipe out the pest and sterilize the soil, making way for new, healthy trees and plant life. Since we have homes in the forest, fires have been suppressed, and Mother Nature has given us this little pest to accomplish the natural thinning of the forest.
The photo below is from a tree that was hit with the beetle last summer. The "popcorn" on the outside of the bark is sap that the tree is using to flush out the bugs. This tree was about 300 years old, and had other health issues, and needed to be cut down yesterday before the beetles could mature and fly to another tree. We live on the edge of National Forest, and have been dealing with this bug for 20 years now. My husband has found pesticide free methods of killing the beetle, by skinning the bark and exposing the bugs to light and air. I'll post photos of that next, as the beetle tree in our yard goes through the process.
If you would like more information on pine beetles, send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to link you with the local resources available.
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