This is what all the trees look like here today. Covered with dead gypsy moth caterpillars. Apparently the natural bacteria that gets 'em if the weather is wet, and it has been wet. 2.25 inches of rain the other day after a wet Spring and BAM !!! The woods are quiet. No more raining poop. No more chards of uneaten leaf fluttering down. The red oak near the garden has acorns. The white oaks ( like the one pictured ) are chewed but still have a good percentage of their leaves. At least they are not totally defoliated naked like the last few years. We have mosquitoes again, but I'll buy a few cans of Off or whatever.
YES!!! DEAD. DEAD. DEAD!!!! However, after multiple years of caterpillar munching, combined with drought, I sure hope the big trees will make a recovery next year. Taken today - So much blue sky, where there should be a solid canopy of oak leaves - Even where there should be thick white pine needles,you can right through them. A good example of what's left on the oaks around here. Additionally, I have multiple white birches whose brilliant yellow foliage won't be on display this fall. I sure hope Mother Nature can recover. If not, then the silver lining will be lots of standing dead wood to harvest. But, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
Such a shame that so many areas get hit with this and it does make a terrific mess. Let us hope for the best.
My dad and I killed millions of those things years ago, with my kids super soakers filled with dish soap and water. His trees recovered quicker than the neighbors.
A familiar sight... did not realize they were dead. Here and down the cape too, had some tourists grossed out after I pointed out one particularly bad oak.
A couple 3 decades ago when them gypsy moths first came to LI, we and a lot of peeps put a tape around the tree, approx. DBH......lots of dead critters stuck to those tapes; when them caterpillars slowed their roll, people would pull the tapes and reveal what looked like a tan line on any given trunk....saved a bunch of trees, tho!
That is great news. We were hit with some heavy downpours yesterday afternoon and I was thinkng that this should help out. We really haven't been hit, but they will eventually arrive.
That's what it is looking like around here, this is first year of them back around here. Still plenty of poop raining down, and no signs of them dying off yet. Riding around I came across one side of the road completely defoliated and the other side untouched in several towns in these parts.
Yep. The munching and pooping hasn't completely stopped. Soon, I hope. Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
