Hello, Does mountain pine beetle only attack pines, or will it attack other conifers? Are there species of pines that are not affected by mountain pine beetle? If so, is a list of these species available? Karin
When it comes to pines, they are quite voracious. A list of host plants can be found on this site Bark and Wood Boring Beetles of the World, which vaguely lists a number of pines by name then concludes with "Other pines are also recorded as hosts". It does seem to be restricted to species of pine, though.
I was speaking with a representative from the Ministry of Forests about this yesterday. He told me that although pine beetle's preferred host is pine, it will affect spruce. It's leaving firs alone (so far).
Maybe try Pinus jeffreyi. That has a very different resin composition to other pines (mainly n-heptane, and no pinenes), so the beetles may not recognise it as a potential host species.
