The high temperatures in August have greatly favored the mass proliferation of beetles in the forests of Baden-Württemberg. “In many of the state-wide monitoring traps, between 1,000 and 3,000 spruce bark beetles were counted per week until the beginning of September,” said Markus Kautz from the Forest Research Institute in Freiburg.
In addition to the spruce bark beetles, more than 20,000 copperplate engravers were caught locally every week in the Black Forest. According to Kautz, spruce bark beetles and copperplate engravers attack spruce trees. A tense spruce bark beetle situation is also expected regionally for 2025. “There is therefore no rapid end in sight to the mass proliferation that has been ongoing since 2018,” says Kautz.
Overall, an “exciting” beetle season is coming to an end. Various factors have partly played against each other. “The swarming began very early in early April. Development was delayed over the following cool and wet months. At the same time, the water supply to the spruce trees was very good,” said Kautz.
July and especially August were hot, which led to a significant increase in beetle activity again. “The bottom line is that 2024 was once again a year of high damage caused by spruce bark beetles and copperplate engravers in southwest Germany. However, damage caused by fir bark beetles decreased significantly,” said Kautz.
While the amount of spruce infestation in Baden-Württemberg has so far decreased slightly in 2024 (minus 14 percent), it has halved in Rhineland-Palatinate (minus 51 percent) and doubled again in Saarland (plus 97 percent). The main regions are currently the southern and high Black Forest, the Odenwald/northern Neckarland and the southwestern Hunsrück.
However, the trees are also struggling with the effects of climate change. Heat waves, long dry periods and storms are weakening them. While the forest has suffered from the extreme weather of recent years, according to experts, many pests such as insects and fungi have benefited from the rising temperatures. This is most clearly seen in the spruce trees.
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