The warmest winter in Colorado history could lead to record-breaking proliferation of a tiny insect, about the size of a grain of rice, that has killed millions of acres of trees across the Centennial State and contributed to the rapid spread of some of its largest wildfires, according to state officials.
Mountain pine and spruce beetles, which are native to Colorado, have recently appeared in larger numbers along the Front Range, the State Forest Service said. The insects feed on several species of pine trees, including lodgepole and ponderosa pines, which occupy much of the state’s forested land.
The beetles lay their eggs in the tree bark, and when the eggs hatch, the larvae produce a fungus that inhibits the tree’s ability to draw water and nutrients from the soil, essentially starving the tree to death…