How human folly prompted beetlemania

The ultimate message in Empire of the Beetle is that of human folly. Nikiforuk shows that many of the scientists who were originally contracted to study the bark beetle with the aim of controlling it eventually came around to seeing the beetle as a natural agent that manages forests. As Nikiforuk concludes: if you remove one agent of renewal in a forest (such as fire), another will take its place. And so, following centuries of forest management, the stage has been set for Empire of the Beetle.