Summary
Bark beetles bore into pine trees to raise their young -- but the trees fight back with sticky, flowing resin. Deep Look reveals this slow-motion battle between a tree's built-in defenses and the beetles trying to get past them.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
A pine tree makes gooey resin that oozes into any wound. When beetles drill in, the flowing resin can trap them and seal the hole -- a plant using structure, not muscles, to defend itself.
- What does a pine tree use to defend itself from beetles?
- How can a sticky resin stop a beetle that has no way to fight back?
- Why is making resin a good survival tool for a tree that cannot move?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: resin, defense, structure, survive.
Try it: Dab a drop of honey on a plate and press a toothpick into it. Write how the tree's sticky resin traps a beetle.