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Cologne / Münster (dpa / lnw) - After the massive forest damage caused by bark beetles in recent years, forest experts hope for a slight relaxation.

"The starting conditions for this are a little better this year - but there is still no reason to cheer," said the spokesman for the forest and wood office, Michael Blaschke, the German press agency.

"Fortunately, the bark beetle is still leaving us alone at the moment."

Since there has been a lot of rain and mostly cool temperatures in the past few weeks, the soil layers are well moistened.

The pest only becomes active when the daytime temperatures are continuously above 16.5 degrees over a longer period of time.

The few warm days before Easter would not have been enough to wake him up from the hibernation.

“The later the Beetles start their season, the shorter it will be - then they may only be able to form one or two generations instead of three this year,” explained Blaschke.

"The longer it stays cool, the better."

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As a result of the periods of frost, at least the animals that overwintered in the larval stage probably died.

"However, there is still an insane number of adult bark beetles overwintering - and when they start, it becomes dangerous."

The decisive factor for the development this year is above all the weather in the next few weeks.

"The rain is one of the main factors," said Blaschke.

If it is sufficiently wet, the spruce trees could produce resin that protects them against beetle damage.

"If it is a spring with normal humidity, it can end more lightly."

If, on the other hand, there is a longer dry phase in the near future, the trees' water supply will be used up again and the beetles will have an easy time of it.

In the past few years drought and, as a result, a massive increase in bark beetles have destroyed large areas of forest in North Rhine-Westphalia, especially spruce trees.

Since the beetle plague began in spring 2018, this tree species has accrued 31.5 million cubic meters of damaged wood according to the state government's latest forest status report.

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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210410-99-149574 / 2

Information about the bark beetle