How old and tall are the trees? Bugs don't typically bother them unless they are over 7 inches diameter. How many acres do you have?
My family has raised Pine timber for generations. We let them thin themselves until they are tall enough to sell pulpwood, and big enough to be selective with which ones we want to leave. This is of course not the typical way. Most go for tonnage per acre, but we go for ending up with the best saw logs.
If you don't thin them, they continue to stretch up, and the lower limbs fall off because they are not getting light. Give them plenty of room, and they bush out. If you want to end up with long clear logs at the bottom, the sooner the better to get rid of the lower limbs, and bushing out is not what you want.
If you don't catch bugs early, there's a good chance they will get out of hand, and you have to cut everything. How many buggy trees do you have? We always walk the stand as soon as the weather gets cold enough to send the ticks in hiding, and drop any buggy tree we find.
When you cut a buggy tree, or any other tree for that matter, don't leave the brush piled up against the trunk of another tree.
This all may be entirely different than what you hear from Professionals, but we always get the highest price when we sell timber, and get some nice clear logs for us. Thinning is good business for the thinners.
