High southern pine beetle activity predicted in areas of the Southeast

With summer upon us and the temperatures rising, the pesky pests known as insects are making their presence felt.

One such pest, the southern pine beetle, is of concern for southeastern states, particularly Alabama and parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi, said David Coyle, associate professor of forest health and invasive species at Clemson University.

Prediction models for 2025 show that for a second year in a row, Alabama is poised to be the hardest hit among southeastern states by southern pine beetle damage, followed by parts of West Georgia and the Upstate in South Carolina.

Coyle manages a southern pine beetle website that contains yearly predictions of outbreaks as well as an historical database dating back to 1960. Information can be found for each southeastern state and the counties of those states.

“Predictions are made as a result of trapping that occurs every year,” Coyle said. “Every state traps for the southern pine beetle and predators in the spring. Those trap catches, along with where beetles were last year, go into these models and these models can predict where beetles are most likely to reach outbreak levels. If there were a lot of beetles last year, that area is likely to have a lot of beetles this year.”

These beetles are smaller than a grain of rice and can destroy millions of dollars’ worth of timber during severe outbreaks in pine forests. They are also costly pests in developed areas and can impact pine trees in urban settings. Activity normally begins in the spring after individuals overwinter in or under the bark of previously infested trees. Female southern pine beetles will most successfully attack trees that have been weakened or stressed by overcrowding, but also by drought, disease, human impacts such as soil compaction or equipment damage to stems, or have suffered other damage like a lightning strike.

“Southern pine beetles are kind of interesting in that people have worked on this pest for decades,” Coyle said. “We know a lot about this pest. We probably know more about this pest than any other southern pine pest. We know exactly how to manage for it. The trick can be getting people to do those management activities, such as thinning their stands. And having the capacity to get those stands thinned when they need to be thinned. Strong wood markets and product demand are key to getting stands thinned in a timely manner.”

David Jenkins, program manager of the South Carolina Forestry Commission’s forest health program, said areas of concern this year will be the Clemson Experimental Forest in Pickens and Oconee counties, and Greenwood, Abbeville, McCormick and Edgefield counties.

Jenkins said each spring the Forestry Commission uses traps in 32 counties across the state to survey for southern pine beetles. Three traps are set in each county for at least a month. They count the southern pine beetles as well as the predators in the traps which eventually lets them know which counties are of concern.

From there, they fly over counties with a lot of beetles but not many predators to map where the hot spots are.

“We’ll identify landowners and reach out to them,” Jenkins said. “Typically, we don’t offer funding to help prevent it, but we do offer advice. If they need to remove trees, usually if it’s a forested landscape, in the past we’ve been able to put them in touch with loggers. The loggers will come and maybe salvage a lot of the woods.”

Last year, there was significant beetle activity in the residential areas surrounding Lake Keowee, in places where it was difficult for loggers to get into. Jenkins and his team advised those homeowners that having the trees hauled off would be expensive, but even if they could have someone just cut the trees down, that would go a long way toward combating the spread of beetles.

“Last year was our biggest one in 20 years and it was still pretty small,” Jenkins said. “It was about 1,000 acres total and almost all of that was on the Clemson Experimental Forest and they took care of it. They were able to get loggers and get trees removed. The rest of it was in residential areas around Lake Keowee.”

The most problematic state in the region was Alabama, which posted some extremely high southern pine beetle numbers in 2024. According to Drew Metzler, forest health coordinator for the Alabama Forestry Commission, it was Alabama’s largest statewide numbers of southern pine beetle spots since the 2000s.

“It was a combination of factors – being in drought conditions for most of 2023, parts of the state having over-mature pine stands, and local market restraints for landowners,” Metzler said. “But certainly, the weather didn’t help things out. That just added further stress to already stressed stands.”

In late 2023, Meztler said there was a record signup for the state’s southern pine beetle prevention program. Through the program, 40 projects were completed throughout the state to reduce the risk of pine beetle activity, including lower density loblolly pine planting, prescribed burning and incentive payments to help landowners conduct commercial thinning of high-risk stands.

This year, Metzler said they conducted surveillance flights on national forested land earlier than normal in hopes of catching spots while their smaller and easier to treat. They also utilize an aerial detections portal that features regularly updated satellite imagery that allows Metzler to consistently survey counties all year without having to be in an airplane.

“Some of our counties actually had lower southern pine beetle prediction numbers than last year,” Metzler said. “If you look at the prediction map that’s available online, it looks pretty bad. I think some of that is from last year’s beetle activity because that is weighted into that prediction formula. I don’t think we’re going to see the large scale, almost statewide activity that we saw last year. I think it’ll be a little more isolated this year as far as the heavy pockets of beetle activity.”

Metzler said the highest numbers are in east central Alabama, in the main Talladega National Forest and the Shoal Creek District of the Talladega National Forest.

Coyle said the website is a resource for people to see what areas in the region are likely to have a high risk for southern pine beetles this year. It also provides contacts for each state in the region.

“We want people to know who to call if they have questions,” he said. “We also want people to practice good pine silviculture. A lot of times, that’s going to reduce your risk for these pests.”