The mountain pine beetle

[woodshed]

Anyone who lives or has spent much time in the Rocky Mountains has seen the damage caused by the little buggers.
Most of the forests seen from Wolf Creek pass in my neck of the woods are ravaged. And it ain't pretty unless acres and acres of standing dead trees are your thing.

The April 2015 issue of National Geographic has a very good article on this destruction. Informative and sad.
Yet a small silver lining. These beetles carry two types of fungus and yeast in their exoskeleton.
Seems an entomologist in Montana has been using the yeast to brew a beer she calls Six Legged Ale.

I'm gonna have to head up the pass and collect up some of the little demons. Fortunately they have yet to reach our property but it is only a matter of time.

BeetleJuice Bourbon anyone?

[jedneck]

Double yeasted double malted. Corn and wheat please.

[woodshed]

Kinda puts a twist on the whole wild yeast thing.

[jedneck]

I'd be game to try it but I'm in the wrong mountains. Gotta look for something in my neck of the woods.

[LWTCS]

Lost a bunch of trees on my lot down south here.
Seems to have been worse during the hurricane years.

[Rastus]

in parts of Alaska the spruce trees have been Ravaged by the spruce bark beetles, vast amounts of dead trees, but never heard of anyone brewing beer out of them, i wonder if they're similar to your pine beetles.

had some Spruce beer made with spruce tips was quite good, wonder if the critters would carry over a pine flavor, doubtful but fun to ponder.

[Yummyrum]

.............. have to head up the pass and collect up some of the little demons. Fortunately they have yet to reach our property but it is only a matter of time.

BeetleJuice Bourbon anyone?

Damn bloke don't tempt fate.
Nature had away of letting little fuckers like that escape ...do you really want them in your property

[woodshed]

I'll kill the little fuckers before I get back in the truck. I drive the pass once a month or more so if they hitch a ride can't do anything about that.

[frodo]

do like we do,,,burn em out. [the pine beetle]

when we find a stand of infected trees, we do a controlled burn

[S-Cackalacky]

Nature can be fragile. I remember elm trees from when I grew up in SC. A bug carried a fungus from tree to tree and over a few decades there were no more elm trees. Same with chestnut trees in most of the country. In the early 1900's an airborne blight-causing fungus was brought in on resistant Japanese and Chinese chestnut trees and spread rapidly. Chestnut was a major building material for many years and now chestnut wood salvaged from barns and old buildings is prized by woodworkers.

With both the elm and chestnut, the disease was a foreign import. There have also been invasive species purposely introduced to solve some problem or other that have had very tragic unforeseen consequences. The kudzu vine was introduced to solve erosion problems in the South and quickly took over the landscape.

With transportation being what it is these days, the little buggers can move pretty freely from one place to another. Got to be careful.

Posted while Frodo posted.

[jb-texshine]

I'd be game to try it but I'm in the wrong mountains. Gotta look for something in my neck of the woods.

Seems I heard something about cicadas carrying yeast also. ..

[frodo]

I'd be game to try it but I'm in the wrong mountains. Gotta look for something in my neck of the woods.

Seems I heard something about cicadas carrying yeast also. ..

cicadas..them loud ass locusts?

we have 15 year locusts that came out this year, couple mths back.

you could not hear yourself think around here for a solid 30 days

[jb-texshine]

That's what we call them in Texas also Frodo. Can't really remember where I read that at though.