Analyzing the Local Spread of Ips typographus (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) by Pheromone Catches in Turkey's Hatila Valley National Park

Ips typographus is one of the most destructive pests of Oriental spruce (Picea orientalis (L.) Link.) forests in Turkey. During the outbreak years it killed millions of spruce trees. Today, Oriental spruce forests, including the Hatila Valley National Park area, shelter an endemic population of the beetle. Pheromone trapping against I. typographus has been employed in 1989 in addition to mechanical control measures. In this study, we employed a total of 105 pheromone traps to investigate the endemic population of the beetle in Hatila Valley National Park forests in Artvin. We tried to analyze local spread of the beetle by means of inverse distance weighting (IDW) and statistical analyses. Pure spruce stands and stands with larger diameter trees hosted higher numbers of I. typographus. IDW showed locations that may have higher beetle populations in the next generation. There were a total of 33 pheromone traps at these locations. The average number of beetles caught in these traps was 2 and 1.3 times higher than the average number of beetles in all traps and traps that were employed in pure stands, respectively. They caught 63.3% of the captured beetles. IDW maps can provide useful data for monitoring with a limited number of monitoring units.