Spruce Budworm - Western Spruce Budworm

Western Spruce Budworm

Western Spruce Budworm is the most destructive defoliator of coniferous forests in Western North America. It is now widely distributed throughout the Rocky and Coast Mountains. The first recorded outbreak was in 1909 on the southeastern part of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Since that year, infestations have frequently been reported in western Canada.

The budworm was first recorded in 1914 in the United States, in Oregon. However, it was not initially recognized as a serious threat to coniferous forests in the western U.S. Aerial spraying apparently terminated some smaller epidemics in the southern and central Rockies; others subsided naturally. The insect then appeared to be dormant in US forests until 1922, when two outbreaks were reported near Priest Lake in northern Idaho. Since then, significant outbreaks in the Rockies and in the Pacific Northwest have caused top-killing and serious economic losses in tree growth. Tree mortality from budworm can occur in regeneration, sapling, and pole-sized trees. Trees in mature stands severely defoliated by the western spruce budworm may become susceptible to bark beetles, which kill mature trees.

Considered the most destructive defoliator in British Columbia, sustained outbreaks of the Western Spruce Budworm resulted in defoliation of over 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) in the Fraser Canyon - Lillooet - Pemberton area from 1949-58. From 1970 -2001 further outbreaks occurred over a much larger area including the area of the previous outbreaks, as well as the Thompson and South Okanagan areas in 1970-2001.

There is no typical pattern for Western Spruce Budworm epidemics. Most of the early epidemics subsided naturally after a few years. Others persisted longer, but without spreading over large areas. An epidemic which began in 1949 in the northern Rocky Mountains has persisted for over 30 years despite insecticidal treatment of more than 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2) between 1952 and 1966.