Beetle Infestation Devastating South Mississippi Tree Species

Red Bay Tree Killed by Laurel Wilt Infestation in Jackson County

A disease being spread by beetles in South Mississippi could have devastating consequences for some tree species in that part of the state. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

Benny McCoy, with McCoy’s River and Marsh Tours is navigating his boat along the shore of the Pascagoula River in Jackson County.

“We are coming up to a Red Bay here that’s dead. It just started showing up here this summer. Starting to see quite a bit up here in the swamp, I would say hundreds of trees.”

The sight of dead Red Bay trees and Sassafras trees is becoming a common sight as the Laurel Wilt Infestation carried by the ambrosia beetle quickly spreads through South Mississippi. Mark LaSalle is the director of the Pascagoula Audubon Center,

“Apparently this beetle, the larva will get underneath bark and eat the living tissue, and in that process the fungus and the beetle contribute to killing the entire tree.”

The beetle which was first spotted in 2002 in Georgia spread quickly into Florida and South Carolina, but researchers are still trying to determine how it got to Mississippi. Laurel Wilt has only been confirmed in Jackson County thus far, but Bill Kitchings with the Mississippi Forestry Commission says it has the potential to spread quickly,

“At the present time there is no antidote or way to control the problem, so we are concerned because this has the potential for a serious impact. This could be kind of the same ecological disaster as the American Chestnut.”

It was same type of ambrosia beetle that killed the entire American Chestnut population in the United States in the early 1900’s.