Ips typographus: Hard not to doubt eradication if pest is spreading

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SO, there we have it. Despite the best efforts of forestry officials to fight back, it appears the eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle has finally breached their defences.

It emerged last week that Ips typographus has been found in East Anglia for the first time, in news that will have sent a shiver down many a forester's spine.

While the pest has previously been confirmed south of London in the likes of Kent and Surrey, this new find is beyond the walls of an established demarcated area, which stretched into Essex. Many will see this new sighting as evidence that Ips is spreading further north, and that is likely to be a major concern, especially given that few details (including the scale of the outbreak) are publicly known at this point.

In total, there had been 40 outbreaks reported across England by August 2023 and apparently all on Norway spruce, a particularly prominent species in East Anglia.

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Forestry Commission spokesperson Andrea Deol said last week: “We are conducting a swift investigation including rapid eradication measures, alongside wider environment surveillance to determine the scale of the issue and identify additional suitable management actions."

As for the the official line of the Forestry Commission (FC) about Ips in general, it is very much business as usual.

"There is no evidence that Ips typographus is spreading in England," the FC's website continues to boast. "The latest establishments are likely to have come directly from the continent."

Putting to one side that direct travel from the continent has been disputed by some due to the distance the pest would need to have travelled (Dr Terry Mabbett's excellent recent piece details this superbly), until there is a proper explanation as to how Ips popped up many clicks north, it is hard to completely dismiss the notion that it may be spreading.

Perhaps, as was the case in a recent one-off discovery in Scotland, the beetle simply arrived in its new home on the back of some imported timber, but this would be cause for concern itself.

There's no doubt forestry officials are working tirelessly to fight back against Ips' spread, fearful that it could wreak the same havoc that has been seen on the continent.

Publicly, the message is very much that eradication is possible and likely. But if it is proven that the East Anglia find is as a result of the pest spreading from the south (as opposed to arriving in the county directly), then it would take the faith of a saint to not have any private doubts.