Researchers Warn of the Spread of the Southern Pine Beetle in Maine

Record high temperatures throughout Maine in January foreshadow the potential danger from a new pest that could attack the iconic trees spanning Maine’s southern coast to the mountains of Arcadia National Park, the Bangor Daily News reports (2-19-24).

University of New Hampshire (UNH) research in 2021 found southern pine beetles in York County, Maine. Each southern pine beetle is about half the size of a grain of rice. However, they swarm and will attack and tunnel through pitch pines.

Scientists say that the southern pine beetle can kill a tree within a few weeks, and they have already killed thousands of acres of pine forests in the southern US, according to the Bangor Daily News. To date, only a couple dozen beetles have been found in Maine, and many of those died off during the cold snap in February 2023. But warmer weather is bringing them north from their southern US roots, with the beetle already having expanded to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Caroline Kanaski, the UNH doctoral student who discovered the presence of the beetles in Maine, told the Bangor Daily News that “Climate change is definitely a factor in this northward spread of southern pine beetles. We’ve had a lot of coastal storms recently and anything that’s going to stress our trees is an opportunity for forest pests to impact them.”

Kanaskie noted that most southern pine beetles will die if it gets too cold at minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit. The state’s January average temperature of 24.3 degrees was 11.2 degrees warmer than what is considered an average January, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It followed a warmer-than-average December and warnings by scientists that the climate is becoming warmer.