HACKMATACK ATTACK

It’s nearly time for hackmatack trees to put on their autumnal show. They are unusual in that they have needles but are not evergreens. You can soon spot them when the needles turn golden before dropping and they stand out among the dark green pines and spruces.

The hackmatacks often are harvested for pulpwood, but they also fill a niche market for builders of wooden boats. Their curved sections, where the trunk meets the roots, are a source for “knees,” the naturally curved braces for corners and thwart supports.

But those lovely, useful trees, known elsewhere as larches and tamaracks but called hackmatacks in eastern and Down East Maine, have a problem: bark beetles. They are always around, ready to destroy the hackmatacks when they are weakened by a either

a wet spell or a dry spell.

Two other bugs can also weaken the hackmatack. One of them is the case bearer, so called because, in its wormlike larva stage, it cuts off the needles and somehow glues them together to make a little house to hide in from predators. The other bug is the saw fly, which gets its name from the little saw attached to the female’s hind-end. She uses the saw to slit the needles to make safe receptacles for the eggs she lay.

In both cases, says Charlene Donahue, a Maine Forest Service forest entomologist, the premature loss of needles helps weaken the tree and open the way for a beetle invasion.

So, when you see those golden hackmatacks, think utility as well as beauty and hope the bugs remain at bay.