Tree-killing bugs of France

This photograph taken in late October 2023 showing the cutting down of maritime pine trees in an area affected by bark beetles – wood-destroying insects – in La Teste-de-Buch, southwestern France. — AFP

LAST year, ferocious wildfires destroyed thousands of hectares of one of France’s most picturesque forests.

Now French authorities are battling an invasion of beetles that are devouring the weakened pines of La Teste-de-Buch, in the southwestern region of Gironde.