Spruce trees facing insect damage yet again.

If you’ve spent much time in Alaska, you’ve probably seen the damage that spruce bark beetles have caused. Millions of trees turned red in the 90's, while bugs burrowed into their trunks killing them. Leaving our state with fire hazards and a lot of lost greenery.

Here we are yet again with another bug after our beloved spruce trees. Though not fatal, the Spruce Aphids damage to the trees in the area is visible. Once green landscapes slowly turned red in the summer of 2015, locals in the area didn’t notice until the following spring when trees started dropping their needles.

While the trees appear to be dying, according to U.S. Forest Service entomologist Dr. Elizabeth Graham, they’re not.

“Even though the tree may look horrible, real scraggly and stuff, it’s actually still alive. They may be stressed but they’re definitely not dead,” Graham said. “The spruce aphid only feeds on the older growth, the older foliage. If you look at the buds, as long as they have the new growth coming out, the trees are still alive.”

“They just discovered it in the last couple years on the Kenai Peninsula. It had been expected to be up there in a big outbreak year in the past, but it had never been confirmed from the ground until now,” Graham said. “In Homer the damage is probably the worst right now, so people are seeing that and there is a lot of concern.”

Recent damage seen by residents of Halibut Cove, a small cove located a few miles across the bay from Homer, Alaska. Marian Beck, longtime cove resident, noticed that the spruce trees were looking thin last year. Then in March, one tree started to drop needles. By May, many spruce were turning brown, so she started making phone calls to determine what was going on. She didn’t get helpful answers until she spoke to Mitch Michaud, resource forester for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Kenai, Alaska.

Michaud took samples, and determined the damage was likely caused by spruce aphids. These are tiny insects (about 1/25th of an inch long) that suck the sap out of mature spruce needles. “Although there are informal reports of these aphids showing up before on the Kenai Peninsula, usually in imported decorative plants such as blue spruce, this is the first documented outbreak of them in wild trees here,” he said.

After learning of this, residents took to the forest with magnifying glasses and a goal. Sure enough, they discovered the trees were coated in these tiny green bugs that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. This all-female population of Elatobium abietinum (they reproduce asexually) give birth to live offspring, which is uncommon in the insect world. They use their piercing, straw-like mouthparts to feed off older spruce needles.

Michaud informed residents, that despite their unpleasant nature, insect infestations are somewhat unavoidable, natural, and even useful in some cases. He predicts, although local residents are still traumatized by the massive spruce-bark beetle outbreak in the 1990s, this new outbreak isn’t going to be nearly as damaging to the local forests.

The last couple of springs have been uncharacteristically warm and dry. Compared to typical springs filled with unpredictable freezing in May, rain, and even snow, this breeds a good environment for bugs that can’t typically survive in Alaska. For now, the aphids are only seen below the 600–700-foot elevation. They need the warm winters provided recently at sea-level. During mild winters, where the temperature does not go below 14 degrees for at least 10 days, the aphid population survives.

Jessie Moan, a pest management technician with the University of Alaska’s Cooperative Extension Service, gave a low-tech way to manage an aphid infestation.

“You can do things as simple as spraying aphids out of the tree with a jet of water,” Moan said. “… It won’t kill the aphids, but it will knock them out of the tree and therefore reduce damage. Also, when they’re off the tree, they’re more vulnerable to predation and desiccation and things like that.”

Specialists do not recommend that you cut down your spruce trees to stop the infestation. It will not damage the aphids, and will only kill trees that would otherwise survive the outbreak. Other local community members have recommended to keep any wasp nests that aren’t harming you or your home, because they will eat both spruce aphids and mosquitoes.