Insect infestations have an impact on the quality of climate reconstructions using Larix ring-width chronologies from the Tibetan plateau

•Our approach successfully removed the effect of insect outbreak on the tree-ring width chronology.•The approach improved growth-climate relationships, especially for summer (June-September) temperatures.•313-year-long summer temperature reconstruction showed a wiggly trend before the 1980 s before experiencing a rapid warming trend.•The insect outbreaks can result in biased climate prediction, especially in cold periods.