These beetles can sense wildfires and race toward the flames while ticks face a different fate
Wildfire burn scars can become a haven for fire-loving beetles, but research shows planned burns can make forests far less hospitable to ticks.
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Fire beetles race toward wildfires. Ticks don’t survive them.
When wildfires tore through north Spokane, Washington, early this year, something unexpected showed up in the ash: thousands of black fire beetles, drawn to the heat.
These insects, part of the genus Melanophila, detect infrared radiation from forest fires with sensors on their bodies and are attracted to freshly burned wood, according to the U.S. Forest Service. They use recently scorched trees to lay their eggs.
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Black beetle on fire trail in the Blue Mountains after the bush fires.
(Anna Fitzgerald / Getty Images)
After the Spokane Complex fires, the beetles moved into burned neighborhoods and cleanup zones. Entomologists said they can arrive while crews are still working on the fire or in the days just after, sometimes by the thousands.
Near burn scars, beetles may crawl onto gear and skin and can bite people, mistaking warm bodies for charred wood. Their mandibles are built to chew into trees, so the nip can sting.
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The scorched, freshly burned ground left by the Spokane fires gave the beetles a perfect habitat. But fire doesn’t only attract insects, it can wipe them out, including the pest Americans hate most: ticks. The catch is the fire that works against ticks isn’t a wildfire; it’s one set on purpose.
Dark beetle hides among dry grass and green stems. Its shiny, ridged shell reflects subtle light. Natural camouflage blends into earthy surroundings. Ideal for nature, ecology.
(Dennis Chraplak / Getty Images)
Wildfires and prescribed fires are not the same. Wildfires ignite and spread under conditions that are hard to control and can destroy homes and infrastructure. Prescribed fires, also called controlled burns, are planned ignitions set under predetermined conditions to meet specific land-management goals, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Fire beetles thrive — ticks don't
Prescribed fires can strip away the shaded and damp cover ticks needed to survive. "Prescribed burning frequently and in an impactful way…can also reduce ticks, when it shapes that environment," Dr. Michael Gallagher, a research ecologist at the Northern Research Station with the U.S. Forest Service, said.
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In past field burns, scientists have found tick mortality exceeding 75%. In southern pine forests maintained with frequent fire, University of Georgia researchers found encounters with ticks carrying pathogenic bacteria dropped by as much as 98%.
Infected ticks warning sign in a forest. Risk of tick-borne and lyme disease.
(24K-Production / Getty Images)
That reduction depended on repeated burns over at least a decade, every two to four years. A single burn does not produce the same result and can temporarily increase tick numbers.
Eastern forests once burned every 1 to 25 years. Decades of fire suppression stretched those intervals to 50 to 100 years across much of the East, according to USDA Forest Service research. The cooler, shadier understories that developed in that gap are conditions where ticks thrive.
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"Really, ticks have been able to thrive because of the byproduct of not burning; and not having as much cutting or work in the forest has enabled a really moderate environment for them," Gallagher said.
Tick bites are rising
Tick-related emergency room visits have surged since 2017, according to the CDC. About 31 million Americans are bitten by ticks each year, and roughly 476,000 are treated for Lyme disease.
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The CDC recommends protecting yourself through repellent, shower checks and tweezers. Those steps can reduce personal risk. They do not, however, reduce the number of ticks in the surrounding landscape.
Powassan virus is extremely rare but is a serious disease that is spread by the bite of tiny, infected black-legged deer ticks.
(iiievgeniy / Getty Images)
Prescribed fires are one tool shown to do that. When used repeatedly under planned conditions, controlled burns can recycle nutrients, suppress some forest pests and pathogens, support fire-dependent plants and reduce human encounters with disease-carrying ticks, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
"If you can minimize their interactions a bit through environmental changes…theoretically, that would reduce some of the disease burden," Gallagher said.
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After Spokane’s fires, beetles that seek burned wood moved into the scar. Research on prescribed fires shows a different outcome for ticks: repeated, planned burns can sharply cut encounters with the pests that spread Lyme disease.
An American flag sways in the breeze after wildfires devastate community in Spokane, Washington.
(North County Regional Fire Authority / FOX Weather)
Getting there may depend as much on people as on forests.
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"Fire is a cultural thing, and I think our perceptions of fire have changed through time," Gallagher said. "Some of the worst forest fires in national history happened in the Northeast a long time ago…I think that created this culture of thinking that fire is bad."