Technique for Rearing Mite-Free Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), Adults1

Southern pine beetles can be reared free of phoretic mites from naturally infested bark if the bark is removed from the tree and air dried. Bark removal does not reduce the number of beetles that emerge. On the average fewer than 1% of the beetles emerging from removed bark carried one or fewer mites, and 85% of the beetles emerging from attacked bark carried one or more mites. Seven species of mites were found on beetles emerging from attached bark.