‘Burn, beetle, burn’: Hundreds of people torch an effigy of destructive bug in South Dakota town

In what has become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of people with torches set fire to a giant wood beetle in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness of the mountain pine beetle’s destructive impact on Black Hills forestland.

RAPID CITY, SD — In what has become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of people with torches are lighting a giant wood beetle on fire in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness of the mountain pine beetle’s devastating impact on forest land in the Black Hills.

Custer firefighters prepared and lit the torches so residents could march to the funeral pyre Saturday evening during the 11th Burning Beetle celebration, the Rapid City Journal reported.

People set fire to the large effigy of the beetle amid drumbeats and chants of “Fire, beetle, fire.” the beetle. Fireworks dazzled above them.

The event, which includes a talent show and a bug crawl, supports local arts.

The US Forest Service calls the mountain pine beetle “the most aggressive, persistent and destructive bark beetle in the western United States and Canada.” The Black Hills have experienced several outbreaks of the beetle since the 1890s, with the most recent occurring between 1996 and 1996. According to the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, it affects 600 square miles.