Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle

By: Keegan Burton

Description• A brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle is a brown-black

beetle, about 2.5 cm long full grown• Ability to fly• Have similar characteristics to other small flying beetles• Beetle is harmless to humans• Kills many trees by digging in the the first few layers of

the tree, cutting off the nutrient flow completely• Generally attack firs, pines, larches and, hardwoods.

Arriving in Canada

• Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetles are throughout all of Europe and arrived in Canada off of the materials from a shipment that came from Europe in the 1800’s

• The container that the beetle’s came off of was very close to Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is a very popular park, full of many different types of trees, so that is where the beetles marked there territory

Before the Arrival

• Before the beetles arrived in Canada (Generally in the Halifax area) the ecosystems fine, the tree’s were getting a bit old, but still in great shape and very healthy

• In September of 2003, Nova Scotia was hit with a big hurricane that wiped out many ecosystems, but Point Pleasant got the worse of it destroying many trees and ecosystems of many different species

After the Arrival

• By cutting off the trees nutrient flow, many trees have died or are dieing

• Point pleasant park is slowly losing its value of a beautiful, healthy park

• Local people in Halifax would cut down the trees that have been attacked to avoid rotting, and so the beetles would leave

Problems

• Because many trees have died and been cut down…the

habitats of many different species have been destroyed, forcing them to find new habitats

• So many animals and insects trying to find the nearest forest to find a healthy habitat, can conclude in a very packed ecosystem that’s not healthy to be living in.

How to get rid of them

• Chemicals cannot kill this type of beetle, so the only thing we can do is kill as many as we can so we can save these trees, and keep this park alive

• Make sure there aren't any beetles on the container ship