OT: Gypsy Moths

[temery]

Theyre getting pretty bad in my yard. I'm curious if anyone else is starting to see or hear the little bastards.

 

[Scottzer]

Yeah, seeing a lot, but we're lucky it has been such a wet spring. The fungus has actually killed a lot (per a tree warden my brother spoke with), but the number of nests from last year's batch just makes it tough to combat.

 

[August_West]

Theyre getting pretty bad in my yard. I'm curious if anyone else is starting to see or hear the little bastards.

Yup, down here in the lower CT river valley we are getting crushed. Worst I've seen since I was a kid when the dismantled 1/2 the state,

I can hear them eating right now sounds like rain

 

[UConnDan97]

I can hear them eating right now sounds like rain

It really does sound like rain! A couple of days ago, my wife and I were looking around and thinking, "not again with the rain!", but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Crazy...

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

What exactly do they do? What is the harm? Is it the moth or caterpillar that effs stuff up or both? don't think I've come across any but I live in a pretty urban area.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Theyre getting pretty bad in my yard. I'm curious if anyone else is starting to see or hear the little bastards.

Yes we are seeing them but we also had a very wet spring in the outer Cape and we are seeing a lot of them turning up dead. I decided to have my trees sprayed this year anyways because we only have oaks out here and those leaves are their favorite food. So far I have just small holes and no signs of caterpillars in my trees.

 

[August_West]

What exactly do they do? What is the harm? Is it the moth or caterpillar that effs stuff up or both? don't think I've come across any but I live in a pretty urban area.

Its the caterpillar. It totally eats and destroys all foliage.


in the one year in the early 80's the defoliated and destroyed about 1.6 million acres of forest in CT alone.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/gypsy_moth/gypsy_moth_november_2016.pdf

 

[beerfan]

They are feasting on an old birch tree in my yard. You can hear them munching way, there are hundreds in the tree.

I put duct tape and vasoline around the base (probably too late) but there were about another hundred of those little buggers below the tape later in the day trying to get into the tree.

 

[BaZZnBOAT]

I'm fortunate I don't have to deal with these, they seem like a true bother. Good luck to those who have to deal with them.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Its the caterpillar. It totally eats and destroys all foliage.


in the one year in the early 80's the defoliated and destroyed about 1.6 million acres of forest in CT alone.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/gypsy_moth/gypsy_moth_november_2016.pdf

So basically if I haven't seen/heard these little @h01es yet I shouldn't worry?

 

[August_West]

So basically if I haven't seen/heard these little @h01es yet I shouldn't worry?

Yeah you are great shape. I cant even walk from my backdoor down the steps to my car without having a dozen on my shirt

 

[John]

is it too late to wrap the trees? We have them hanging on the house, etc

 

[temery]

This is what I'm dealing with. I skim off the bits of leaves, then a couple hours later, same thing.

 

[AreBee1969]

I can hear them eating right now sounds like rain

I was mountain biking at Case Mt. in Manchester on Sunday and the ground is covered with chewed leaves. It looks almost like fall. Their crap hitting the ground also sounded like rain falling. My Jeep was parked under a tree and was full of it when I got done riding.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Wow I'm a veteran of the great gypsy moth war of the 1970's
They ate the hardwoods first and when all those were gone they attacked the evergreens .
Since they don't put out s second leaving many were killed or damaged along with older hardwoods no longer capable of a second leaving.
I call it war because after work every man in my neighborhood would dress in battle gear and armed with Sevin
, if you could find it.
would do battle as best he could.
Trying to protect our domains.
We pretty much lost as they were so many of them you could hear them eating in the adjacent woods our only allies the birds
Just as it seemed all was lost it suddenly ended.In late June and the plague never returned
Good luck guys

 

[Dove]

They are nasty.

My woods are alive with constant crunching. The leaf bits and caterpillar carcasses are floating on my pool and I can't keep up with the skimming. The peppercorn-looking feces is everywhere. And you look up at an oak tree and every single leaf is like Swiss cheese.

Nasty.

Above picture was about 3 weeks ago.

 

[Dove]

Nothing like grabbing a grill handle and ppptthhpptttt you squish one. duck! Or a car door handle. Or a garbage container lid. Or a beer can. Or a rake. Or you go to sit on an Adirondack chair. Or you go to put on a work glove. Or you go to turn on a radio in the garage.

Everywhere.

 

[Kenny11]

This gypsy moth epidemic was clearly used as negative recruiting against UConn with the Italian kid.

 

[John]

This gypsy moth epidemic was clearly used as negative recruiting against UConn with the Italian kid.

I'm sure some people here are going to blame the Gypsy moths on Ollie.

 

[IMind]

Don't have them down here in PA at all... but I remember them from my youth. My Dad was just complaining about them when I called him this morning. I knew they were always sort of around. You'd see one here or one there from time to time... but didn't know they were coming back like this.

 

[WallStreetHusky]

As one other poster mentioned, you do realize that you arent hearing them "eating" or "crunching", what you are hearing is their feces constantly hitting the leaves like rain drops..........just thought I would share.......

 

[August_West]

Unlike probably some of you, my problem with these things is not the tree destruction. I abut a state forest, I welcome some deforestation, might actually get some sun in my backyard for once and wont have to rake 700 times this fall.

My problem is what dove mentioned. The things are gross. And everywhere. Im tired of stepping on em and seeing trails of green oooze everywhere. Im tired of letting my dog out and having him come back inside with 10 riding on his back. Im tired of pulling them off the back of the house. Scummy little things.

 

[Kitaman]

Hartford Courant Article Last Month

 

[The Funster]

Oh crap, not these bas!ards again...

 

[Scottzer]

It's not

Yup, down here in the lower CT river valley we are getting crushed. Worst I've seen since I was a kid when the dismantled 1/2 the state,

I can hear them eating right now sounds like rain

It's not them eating that sounds like rain. It's them s#itting. When I ride my bike I aim for as many as I can.