The No. 1 way to control its spread is to cut down and then chip, burn or bury the pine trees killed by the disease last fall.

Timing is critical. The removal must take place before early May, when this year’s adult pine sawyer beetles start to emerge from dead trees. At that time, many of those beetles will be contaminated by pinewood nematodes -- the organisms that actually cause pine wilt disease. And, the sawyers’ consuming interest will be finding healthy pines, where their feeding damage will look like an open door for nematodes.

Community-wide cleanup is the only hope for better control of pine wilt disease. Trees that died more than a year ago are not a high priority, however, because they no longer harbor the fly-away pine sawyers.

– Source: Ned Tisserat, plant pathologist

K-State Research and Extension