The Beetles, Performing Near You

By Tom Poland

 

Beetles. They’re coming and they need no introduction. Southern pine beetles that is. For years now, I’ve watched one pine after another turn reddish-yellow-brown as it dies. Then the needles disappear, leaving a denuded skeleton of a tree, which loses its bark in places and rots. So far, my neighbors and I have lost over thirty trees. It’s not a quiet death. Stand near a tree and you can hear the beetles chewing, and eventually you’ll hear either saws or a loud slam into the earth. Not really a choice is it?

So, have pine beetles given you a big problem? What to do?

Depends on where you live. Pine beetles illustrate the difference between living in the deep country and in a city’s tree-lined fringes. In the suburbs, opportunistic men drive around looking for the dying reddish-brown tops of pines. They knock on your door, ready to take the tree down that very moment. From two-man bands to incorporated tree crews, the offers keep coming. I’ll not bother to list fees but it isn’t cheap. The tree cutters know that you have a serious problem on your hand that ties directly to your homeowner’s insurance. Doing nothing is not an option, as a neighbor learned the hard way. More on that later.

In the country, folks know a phone call takes care of a tree problem promptly and less costly. A lot of men folk own saws and know what to do. To do nothing is to err. A dead pine that has stood way too long? Well, it becomes a serious threat to life and property. Cutting a rotten tree threatens the men with saws and ropes. Back in March I was showering when a crash rocked the house. I had just checked radar to see a squall line heading my way. An early thunderstorm rumbled in I thought as a huge crash shook the house mightily. Mightily. “That can’t be a thunderstorm,” I thought. “That has to be a tree.”

 

 

It was. My neighbor’s 65-foot tall pine that had died long ago from pine beetles came down. It crushed my new rebuilt deck, destroyed an expensive patio table, tore down my gutter, and knocked holes into the roof over the kitchen. In the midst of a storm I went onto the roof to put down a tarp. That same day I put a call into my homeowners insurance company and then all that insurance “stuff” began … photos, adjustors … calls and emails. A few weeks later I got a new roof, restored deck, etc. when both my neighbor’s insurance and mine covered a good bit of the damage.

I wasn’t out of the woods though. I myself had three pines dying from beetles and another neighbor had two trees turning reddish-yellow, all within striking distance of my house. Now all this worry started when a female southern pine beetle was ready to feed and lay eggs. She found our pines to her liking and chewed her way into them. It turned into a bug party of sorts. A beetle drilling its way into a tree releases scents that attract other southern pine beetles to the tree. Soon mites and fungi join the beetles. It doesn’t take long for a gang like this to kill a tree.

I miss the country but love the city’s conveniences. Taking down a tree, however, isn’t convenient. I didn’t know any fellows with saws so I hired one of those professional crews. After some negotiating I arranged for them to cut my neighbor’s trees and mine. They reminded me of trapeze artists, swinging from tree to tree. They were fast, efficient, and professional. A couple of thousand dollars later our homes were safe. Just yesterday, though, I see another of my neighbor’s trees is dying. Here we go again. The beetles are coming. Too bad we don’t live in the country.

 

Photos by Tom Poland

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
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Tom Poland is the author of fourteen books and more than 1,500 magazine features and columns. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press released his book, Georgialina, A Southland As We Knew It, in November 2015 and his and Robert Clark’s Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II in 2014. The History Press of Charleston published Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia in 2014 and published South Carolina Country Roads March 16, 2018. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture and speaks to groups across South Carolina and Georgia, “Georgialina.”