RENO, NV -- An insect spreading through Nevada has some people concerned about forest safety.  The mountain pine beetle may be a threat, but also part of the local ecosystem.

John Christopherson of the Nevada Division of Forestry says the insect is potentially dangerous, but has the right to be.  “These are native insects, they belong here,” says Christopherson. “They are an integral component of the forest eco-system.”

Every year the NDF maps Nevada’s dead trees and take inventory of what bugs are attacking them by flying a small plane over the states forest land.  Last year, mountain pine beetle infested trees increased one hundred and ninety percent over those in 2010.

“It’s definitely increasing,” says Christopherson. “It’s a response to the dry drought conditions that lowers the trees vigor & moisture, increasing stress that they’re under and when they’re under stress they are more susceptible to a successful attack to this particular beetle.”

He also says the bugs can turn regular trees into fire, water shed and habitual hazards.  The pine leafs on trees are an indicator of beetle infestation. If the leafs are a red, rusty color than the mountain pine beetle has taken over the tree as opposed to it being a lighter green tint.

The female enters the tree first, digs a tunnel and releases a pheromone aerosol scent that attracts beetles by the thousands.  Professor Gary Blomquist and the University of Nevada Reno Biochemistry department is trying to figure out how to interfere with the beetle’s pheromone chemical release to prevent the mass attacks.  “If there’s only one or two beetle attacks the tree always wins, the pinch tubes will pitch the beetles out and kill them,” says Blomquist. “When you get hundreds attacking the same tree if the tree is stress and here it’s primarily due to drought then the tree will succumb.”

He says to control the bug throughout the state would be unfeasible. “It would cost an enormous amount to control them with pesticides, the best way to control them is to give the trees spaces, thinned and spaced appropriately,” says Blomquist.

Christopherson hopes their population will simply decline over time because he says that’s what normally happens in cases like this.