The Forestry Commission is to extend its measures to tackle a beetle pest across East Anglia. The Ips typographus, or larger eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle, is a serious pest of spruce trees in Europe and has been spotted in the region. Measures introduced in 2022 to the South East will now cover parts of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, as well as Lincolnshire, from 12 June. Spokesperson Andrea Deol urged landowners and timber processors to “remain vigilant” because “we are now entering the next [beetle] flight season”. The insect is present in spruce trees, especially Norway spruce, in most of Europe and has probably blown into the region. It was first spotted in the UK in Kent in 2018 and prefers stressed or dying trees, but could attack healthy trees in the right conditions, according to the commission.