New 'beetle juice' may stop bark beetles

FRISCO - Spending your days at one meeting after another may not seem very exciting, but Jan Meneley doesn't mind.

"Absolutely," said Meneley.

He's president of a Westminster company called AgBio, and has been visiting mountain communities like Frisco to talk to homeowners and the U.S. Forest Service about a new weapon in the battle against bark beetles.

"It's been available for a couple of years and has not been used in Colorado," said Meneley.

For years, bark beetles have been boring into pine trees, killing them and turning entire forests red all over Colorado. Now the beetles are up against BeetleBlock.

"It's not a chemical spray, it's a naturally occurring or synthetic mimic to a natural occurring pheromone," said Meneley.

It works as an alternative to spraying trees with chemicals from top to bottom. Instead BeetleBlock uses synthetic pheromones stored in a pouch which is then stapled right to the tree.

"It is a controlled released dispenser that is stapled high, as high as you can reach, to the tree," said Meneley.

Using pheromones, bark beetles can attract or repel other beetles around them. BeetleBlock packets contain the pheromone they use to send other beetles scurrying away.

Cary Green with the U.S. Forest Service says for a few years now pheromones have been tested and proven in Colorado forests.

"There are pheromones available that are being used to repel mountain pine beetles on the lodgepole pines," said Green.

Still he says people shouldn't expect BeetleBlock to save entire forests since each packet costs around $10, but it should work to protect small clusters of trees around homes.

"Don't expect everything to be 100 percent effective, it's the setting you use it in, how you use it," said Green.

Meneley agrees with Green, saying BeetleBlock isn't the "silver bullet" to beat bark beetle, but will help in certain situations. With bark beetles heading east toward the Front Range, Meneley says he expects to be talking a lot about BeetleBlock in a lot more meetings.

"We're trying to make the message available to anyone who will listen," said Meneley.

You can learn more about BeetleBlock by visiting AgBio's Web site at www.agbio-inc.com.