What do you have that works best for mountain pine beetles? I was looking at your pine borer article and figured those chemicals would work but we’re up here in Colorado and have ponderosa pines, a different species.
First, watch this video. It goes over the process in great detail which in fact applies to the mountain pine beetles just like the more common pine borers.
We have a surface spray to treat the bark and a systemic for long term control. In general, moutain pine borers will be active just under the bark and not deep enough for systemics to kill them completely. But to help ensure the tree survives, treating with PROTHOR will help by killing any that do bore deep enough. Plus it will kill anything else that might target the tree’s needles.
This product should be mixed with water and then used as a soil drench around the base of the tree inside the drip line. Prothor will take 3-6 weeks to be sucked up and distributed throughout the tree. Once distributed, it will kill anything feeding deep enough or on the foliage.
Mix 1 oz of Prothor in 3-4 gallons of water (a five gallon pail is well suited to make the mixture and treatment). Create holes around the tree using 5-10 holes for every pail you mix up. Holes can be made with a pick axe or metal stake like rebar. Slowly pour the mixture down into the holes making sure it goes down into the soil so it can be absorbed.
Once applied, the treatment will be absorbed over a 1-2 month period (depending on the time of year when you treat). And once in place, the treatment will protect the tree from any kind of bark, trunk or foliage pests like ponderosa pine borers.
Plan on treating once a year and though you should focus on infected trees, it would be wise to treat any tree you’d like to prevent from getting the problem too.
Since infected trees will be releasing special pheromones used to attract more borers, the affected tree will act as a “beacon” luring beetles from the immediate area to your yard. To keep them off your trees, spray the exterior bark with MAXXTHOR EC.
As an oil based active, this product is both invasive and repelling by nature. Once the bark absorbs the treatment, it will kill active beetles and keep new ones from wanting to land. Treat infected trees and any you want to protect using a mixture of .5 oz per gallon of water.
Use any standard PUMP SPRAYER to make the application and plan on using 1/2 to 1 gallon of mixed spray per tree. Reach as high as possible; 10-15 feet is the minimal height you need to reach.
If you have a lot of trees to treat, consider using a good HOSE END SPRAYER. Using our sprayer, you’ll need to add 2.5 oz of Maxxthor and then enough water to fill the spray tank up to the 5 gallon line. Next, hook the sprayer to your garden hose and spray out the contents. This mixture will provide 5 gallons of mixed solution; add 5 oz of concentrate and fill the sprayer to the 10 gallon line if you need 10 gallons of mixed solution.
If you need to reach up 35-40 feet or more, our NO PUMP SPRAYER will help big time. It relies on air pressure and can be pumped up to 80-90 psi safely. The small one can hold 1.5 gallons of mixture and when pressurized, will pump out the entire contents with only one time filling it with air. It’s especially helpful when you need to treat trees that are not reachable with a garden hose.
This video covers all you need to know about the sprayer:
Lastly, if you have a lot of holes in the trunk, inject FS MP AEROSOL to ensure you reach the feeding borers not deep enough to be affected by the Prothor but deep enough to avoid the Maxxthor.
FS MP comes with an injection straw so you direct the spray into the holes where it will move laterally between the exterior bark and cambium. Ponderosa beetles will typically spend a lot of time in the sapwood or cambium in the trunk so they can be hard to reach. But FS MP will penetrate throughout the hole reaching developing larvae and killing them on contact.
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