eGarden © 2005 Ed Mues

From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on August 10, 2005

Mothra: It Came from Afar in 1869 and Got Loose.

I wonder if anyone out there remembers the sci-fi horror flick, "Mothra". It was released in 1961. Not quite a hundred years after the Gypsy moth's first appearance as a major tree pest in America. We're blessed. Ours are nothing like the MOVIES'! Thanks be to G...

The Gypsy moth is a serious pest in central and east Asia as well as much of Europe and north Africa. It was the accidental release here of a European strain being investigated as a possible source for silk production, that has plunged the U. S. into one of the most expensive and economically dectructive battles in our forest history.

They seemed to come out of nowhere. Without warning, without the normal telltale slender threads of their delivery and mobility. Leaves began to disappear, trees were thinning day by day. It was then that the largish hairy caterpillars were seen munching away. They were approaching adulthood. We were caught off guard. Even the DEC was caught by surprise.

I spoke with Dick Rommel and Tom Backus, both with the Lands and Forest component of the DEC in New Paltz. Usually, the winter following an outbreak, field surveys are conducted and egg mass counts are estimated so we can be a bit prepared for what size populations to expect for different geographic areas. Well, we had no large noticeable population last year, so no infestation was anticipated.

Then the calls came. Southwest of Monticello, the Town of Thompson, Fallsburg, the Town of Olive, north of Ellenville, Sundown, Claryville, the Route 28 corridor. Some of the "Gunks". From Yaegerville Road looking north, much defoliation was evident. Especially in the higher elevations.

Many calls and inquiries came in! Not when they were munching away on foliage far and wide a few weeks before. Only when the caterpillars were adults, had their fill, and were ready to move on. Many trees were near bare by then. But, move on to what?

That's when the calls and stop-bys and questions really accelerated. The day flying, brownish male moths were literally "in your face". Their dizzying, haphazard flight was frenetic in their search to reach the sex pheromones of the white, heavy, sluggish female and her large egg mass waiting to be fertilized. Sex can do that to a guy, no? Yes?

The leaves disappearing several weeks ago before our eyes, this took a back seat for some of us. We don't want to or know how to use chemicals. How gross to pick them off and squish them. Drop them in soapy water, maybe. They're too high to reach. I'm too busy...

The fact of the matter is the earth bound, white with two dark spots females crawl to a place that is anywhere from a few inches up the tree trunk to 25 feet up it. Also, beneath lawn furniture, under window sills, on cars, rocks, fence posts, garden equipment, you name it .. a space to have her young safe and secure through the winter. Places you might not even imagine to look. It's genetically imprinted. Leave a hat out while Gypsy moths are active. See what you find in the spring. The buff colored, velvety looking egg mass holds between 500 and 700 future caterpillars.

My back yard got well eaten. I picked off many. My wife, Diane, collected bags and bags of caterpillars and the tear-drop shaped pupae. I also saw for the first time here, Baltimore orioles. They stayed for a couple of weeks and, also, had their fill. Nature balances all equations man hasn't monkeyed with. So, the most common question to me is: What can I (we) do!? At this stage, do nothing.

Adults chasing after flying moths produced, in me, the memory of the Marx Brothers movies. They are not beautiful butterflies, after all. I heard one man sprayed ten trees with a can each of insect killer. (I wonder how high he reached). A neighbor sprayed moths with roach and ant killer. She called to ask what she could do. I tried to get back to her, but she had to go to the supermarket. I hoped she wasn't buying more roach and ant killer.

These tactics (thoughtless acts?) are counter productive. They fill our environment with pesticides and chemicals that are wrong, applied way too late, and may be killing beneficial insects we need. That's to say nothing of the other harmful effects to our environment such as the air we breathe, etc.. Adult moths eat nothing, damage nothing. Most of what we see are males. For every hundred males one might kill, many thousands survive.

But, right now as I write this, I can say with certainty that it is almost over, or, all over depending on where you live. The females are dead, having accomplished their egg laying. The number of moths in your face is diminishing daily and by the time you read this, it, too, is likely past. Missions accomplished, for them.

Many other factors figure in this equation. How stressed were the trees when they were defoliated? What was the rainfall like before and after defoliation? Will the winter be severe enough to impact on the eggs survival? How cold? How much ice? These eggs are not invincible. We have lived with this foreign introduction for a very long time. Their recurrence is not constant or even frequent. My several plants and trees are already re-leafing very nicely thanks to some much needed rain.

An active role you might play is to go out on a mild winter day, when it is easy to see into the trunks and branches. Look for the buff-colored egg masses. They are velvety in texture, oval in shape. Identify these trees with a ribbon or colorful tie.

We are not in trouble, yet. Live through the winter. If you're here all year, you'll have a good sense of its degree of severity. I've actually done this experiment. After a good taste of winter, go out into your woodland where you've witnessed the egg masses. Remove an egg mass with your fingernail, bring it into the house in a mason type jar with a screened or mesh top, and place in a warm place. Observe. If a particularly severe weather event takes place after this, repeat the procedure. A third sample date close to spring is useful, too.

If the jars are labeled with collection dates, it will be easy to determine survival rates. Watch for the hatches. You may learn we are really in for it, or, you may learn we are going to get off easy. If we are in for it, those you can reach, scrape off into a soapy water solution. Do not leave on the ground if it's winter. They may just continue to hibernate until hatch temperatures are ideal and ascend the trees and begin munching.

For the very many you don't even see, as well as the ones you can't get to, nature will provide. It usually takes between two and three subsequent years of defoliation to kill a tree. There are two beneficial organisms, one a fungus and the other a virus, especially active when it's wet, that in years of normal precipitation control large portions of gypsy moth caterpillar populations. We had a drier than normal season just when they hit, resulting in some fairly widespread defoliation.

In the spring, if you see juvenile caterpillars, Bt is an excellent, eco-friendly remedy. Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, a microbial agent known to be harmless to all but leaf eating caterpillars. The product is sprayed on leaves and must be ingested. Once the caterpillars are growing, if you observe they are still ascending and descending the trunk daily, banding with burlap strips will collect many of them in this makeshift trap.

Tanglefoot, the brand name of a very sticky product, can also be applied around the trunk to trap them with no harmful effect to the tree or the environment. Once trapped, they may then be disposed of. If they are already mature, chemicals are the only answer, except, of course, hand collecting and squishing. How high can you reach?

From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on August 10, 2005

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