These things are around every summer, but are especially bad this year. They go south, but mainly stick to the pocono mountain region. They are destroying tree tops. Anyone else having problems this year with them? http://wnep.com/2014/06/23/gypsy-moths-invading-nepa/
This year it is the winter moth caterpillar and they have decimated the leaves on many trees. I doubt the cherry blossom in out front yard can survive. I heard there is some kind of 7 year cycle on the gypsy moths but have not done any research on that.
We had winter moth caterpillars first then the gypsy moths Red Oaks have been defoliated twice For some reason haven't had winter moths in the White Oaks. The gypsy moths supposedly will come down out of the tree during the heat of day or hide under branches and then go back up at night, especially when they get older. Here is an infestation on a white oak. They seem to dry up and die there though. We had tent caterpillars real bad up until about 4 or 5 years ago, then none. I saw a few tents this year in cherry trees. In the past their numbers have grown every year for a few years and then nothing for a while. When their population explodes the trees can be completely nude with them crawling all over everything starving.
We haven't had bad gypsies since I was a kid. I remember during one bad infestation being able to hear their poop raining down in the woods.
I remember going through PA in the early 90's and was amazed at how bad it was in most areas. Wherever there is oak, there is the threat of gypsy moth. We had them bad in the late 80's here but although we'll see a few every year, there aren't enough to do damage now. But when we had them it was awful. We had them for 3 years and then they disappeared. One of the worst things about them is the do a lot of crapping and on the ground you'll see little black flecks. But let it rain and they are like popcorn and it really makes a mess.
We got wiped out by gypsy moths about 2-3 yrs ago. For 3 yrs in a row they hit us hard and ate just about every hardwood leave they could find. Once they ate the hardwoods they would move on the softwoods and even pines. We lost quite a few trees on our property and the surrounding state forests lost 1000's of oaks.
yeah, this is the first year i have notcied them on my property. not overly abundant, but definatly an increase from zero. they seem to like my apple and cherry trees. i keep trimming the branches they are on and tossing them in the firepit.
I find it odd all the talk about gypsy moth eating any hardwood. When we had them, it was only in the oaks.
