Insects threat spruce forests in Southern Sweden

The dangerous bark beetle is swarming in Southern Sweden earlier than normally. There is also a great risk of a second generation swarming later in the summer.

Because of the warm summer the beetle population swarmed early. The drought made spruce more vulnerable to attacks.

Mr Mats Sandgren, CEO of Södra Skog, says that the beetle population is very large. The weather has weakened the defence capacity of spruce and trees suffer from stress. More than three million cubic metres of wood may be hit only within Södra's own region and the total may be as high as six million cubic metres.

Forest owners try to combat the bark beetle by removing attacked trees and by setting traps treated with feromones to attract swarming insects. All storm felled timber and timber from felling must be removed not later than 1 July.