Forest officials recently reported that acres of trees are dying in New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest due to an infestation of tiny bark beetles. The pests, which are smaller than the nail of a pinky finger, have scavenged their way through 41,000 trees in 2011, prompting local, state and national forest officials to develop a pest control plan to combat the beetle outbreak in the Sacramento Mountains.
National Forestry official Dan Ware told ABC affiliate KVIA that the extremely dry conditions seen in 2011 were a major contributing factor to the pest infestation.
"The trees in the Sacramento Mountains are extremely stressed right now," Ware told the source. "When trees are stressed, they are more susceptible to insects, disease and, of course, fire."
The beetles are invading the trees through the bark by releasing a poison that stops the trees from creating sap, which normally pushes the bugs out of healthy trees. Stressed trees are unable to defend against the beetles, the source reported.
Another bug, the rose beetle, can also be a nuisance to household plants such as rose gardens. In a Q&A piece for the Star Advertiser, gardening specialist Jayme Grzebik said the Chinese rose beetle was first introduced to the United States in Hawaii in 1896, and is common in many gardens today. The pale, reddish-brown bugs are nocturnal and tend to feed and mate right around sunset.