  Scottish Forestry believes the finding is a ‘one-off’ with the Ips typographus beetle coming in through the Forth Port of Grangemouth. Photo: Forest Research The alien invasive spruce bark beetle Ips typographus continues to crop up in the UK with the latest discovery in Scotland and a first for that country. This is certainly the scariest identification so far given that the bulk of commercial forestry in Scotland is based on Sitka spruce. This latest finding of Ips typographus in Scotland was of a single beetle picked up in an improved insect pheromone trap and deployed as part of Scottish Forestry’s new surveillance programme. However, to put the finding into context Scottish Forestry says it is just a single Ips typographus beetle found amongst 6,500 other insects and covering 40 different species.
James Knott, head of tree health at Scottish Forestry said: “Although this is the first time we have found Ips typographus in Scotland, we currently believe it is a one-off that hitch-hiked here.” Now I take that comment to suggest the beetle came in on a crate or a suitcase and not as a pest on its natural host tree material which in this case is spruce timber and wood with bark and most likely Norway spruce.
Indeed, Scottish Forestry says the beetle found in woodland in Fife is believed to have arrived on the back of goods being shipped into Scotland via the port of Grangemouth. As an Englishman my knowledge of Scotland, both in geography and trading patterns is notoriously sketchy so I checked both the relevant geography and the nature of trade going through Grangemouth Port and this is what I found out:
Grangemouth is on the Firth of Forth within the county of Stirling and Falkirk, historically in the County of Stirlingshire but now falling within the unitary authority of Falkirk. And low and behold Grangemouth is just two miles south-west of the boundary with Fife.
So what about trade aspects? Grangemouth is one of the Forth Ports and Scotland’s largest individual port, handling 9 million tonnes of cargo each year through liquid, specialist container and general cargo terminals. Imported goods include food, drink, machinery, steel products, paper and timber, the latter being the import of interest here.
Forth Ports has a dedicated forest products terminal at Grangemouth and there will apparently soon be a massive biomass burning plant operating at Grangemouth. When planning permission was granted back in 2013 for the biomass burning plant objections were raised by Green MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Alison Johnstone who said the plant would burn up to 1.5 million tonnes of imported wood every year. Commissioning of the plant was scheduled for late 2023.
No mention of where the wood is likely to come from (or indeed whether wood is arriving already in anticipation) and the sort of tree species involved, but conifers including spruce are likely to be involved and sourced from continental Europe where Ips typographus has run riot for centuries if not millennia on Norway spruce. And clearly the easiest and cheapest source of foreign wood earmarked for biomass burning in the UK including Scotland.
No mention of what port the wood for biomass burning was likely to come in through but for proximity and economy Grangemouth would appear to be the obvious choice.
I use the term wood advisedly because material for biomass burning is likely to be low grade wood and logically more likely to be suffering from pest infestation and perhaps less likely to undergo as thorough inspection as high grade timber for cutting and construction. If the Ips typographus beetle did indeed come in through Grangemouth as Scottish Forestry implies, and specifically within imported bark-covered spruce timber or wood, then I would not choose the term ‘hitch-hiked’ to describe the pest’s ride into Scotland.
Scotland is lucky if this is a ‘one off’ beetle which Scottish Forestry says it is. And a lot more fortunate than England where established breeding populations of Ips typographus have been found across Southern England since 2018. The first was in Kent with subsequent findings in East and West Sussex and then Surrey, with at least 23 outbreaks reported by August 2023, apparently all on Norway spruce. UK government says: “Outbreaks have resulted from natural dispersal (blow over) of Ips typographus adult beetles from the continent. They say there is no evidence of onward dispersal from any outbreak site in England.” The type of evidence on which this assumption is based has not been specified.
Read the full article in the JanFeb2024 sample copy
Author: Dr Terry Mabbett, Independent Consultant
Published in International Pest Control – January/February 2024 issue. The post Ips typographus in the UK – an answer for every entry first appeared on International Pest Control Magazine. 
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