Ew! That’s the one word comes to mind when I think of the possibility of another year with Gypsy Moths. They come in cycles and since this is the third year in a row that they’re out, that gives at least some hope that relief may be in sight as they should disappear again for a few years after this cycle. Now I’m no bug expert so its possible that it will be a mild year and the nests I’ve seen near our house and around town are just flukes. The thought of being infested again this year is definitely a downer though.
If you haven’t encountered them before I’ll give you a quick overview as to why they suck…
1) The amount. I like to think of myself as a nature person, I grew up camping with my family every year, to this day I’ll pick up a snake when I see it(which freaks my husband out), I’m not too fond of spiders or any insects inside the house – but outdoors I’m not really bothered by bugs except nats since they’re just plain annoying.Â
With the gypsy moths its a whole new game – its not a catepillar here or a moth there – there are literally hundreds, even thousands that are on the trees, your house, your car…they dangle from trees so when you look up all you see is hundreds of floating catepillars. When the moths hatch you almost get swarmed by them – its disgusting to say the least.
2) They ruin the trees. In order to survive they feast on the leaves and trees – not only is this damaging to the trees and can even possibly kill them off, but it looks terrible as the regular beautiful canopy of leaves are devoured into just stems.Â
3) They eat so they…relieve themselves. Well the leaves have to go somewhere right? Imagine this…its a beautiful summer day, you grab a glass of iced tea and go into your yard and take a chair out, sit down, close your eyes and take in the quiet peaceful sounds of nature. You hear what you think is maybe a spring shower…ping…ping…you stand up and look around then back down at your chair which is now covered with catepillar feces…EW! It gets EVERYWHERE! No one in their right mind is going to stand outside knowing that they’re literally being rained on by catepillar droppings. It downright destroys the ability to go outside and relax under the trees – and its a mess to clean up.
4) The moths – The moths aren’t as dirty as the catepillars, but the hundreds even thousands that have been hiding in the trees are now all over your yard, car, you take a few steps and before you know it have a hundred moths in your face. Not as disgusting but definitely annoying – think huge nats – ick!
Our Gypsy Moth Attack ’07
Ok, so it wasn’t an ‘attack’ last year but it might as well have been. My husband and I had a summer event planned, we invited up relatives from Philadelphia and from farther parts of the Poconos to come join us for an outdoor party. In the weeks leading up to the event the weather was beautiful and we worked our butts off to get the yard looking great. We were happy and optimistic…until ‘they’ came. About 2 weeks before our event they started to expose themselves – we had previously seen some in the trees and around the yard – but now they were COVERING the siding on our house. We tried to spray them off with the hose to no avail and finally ended up using a pressure washer, it didn’t get them all but at least it made a dent. We spent the next 2 weeks spraying to kill what we could as they continued to fall and drop waste from the trees. In the days leading up to our event we started setting up tables, tents and chairs – bad idea. We spent the final days before the party cleaning off the chairs, tables and tents a few times a day from the catepillar droppings. The day arrived and the catepillars were still there – still in the trees, still crawling on everything, still leaving their little presents everywhere. Everyone arrived and just as we were about to go outside….it rained…and poured. We ended up moving the party to our community center where we could be inside away from the rain and the bugs. Long story short – if you’re planning an outdoor event this year and the infestation is anything like it was last year, it would be really wise to save yourself the time and effort and just have an indoor party. If you have a large area that is no where near trees you might be safe, if not, I’d just cross your fingers.
They’re not spraying
Towards the end of last year the Pocono Record reported that there were no municipalities in the Monroe County area participating in spraying – although its a hit or miss thing and can cost a lot, at least there is the possibility of warding them off, saving people a lot of hassle – and saving our trees. Our community sent out a letter hoping to get enough people to participate in having our community sprayed privately but not enough people signed up to participate. You can check with your community to see if its available but it might already be too late.
 Whether they’re actually here or just a few are visiting, I hope this is the last year for awhile that they do visit so we can finally get a truly peaceful summer!
There are several alternatives:
1) call the pocono tree service to have your place sprayed with Carbaryl. For approximately $400 (depends on the size of your place) they’ll come and spray around your house.
2) Call a sprayer. I found a guy last year who sprayed large sections of Monroe. He’s from Georgia and comes up with a few guys with airplanes. I don’t know if he’s up this year, but I will call him. He’s at 1-229-308-0579 He’ll do smaller areas. It works out to about $35 / acre.
3) There’s a new chemical i just read about called “eradicoat” which is supposed to work for extended periods if you spray it on trees. You spray it either on a burlap strip you tie around the tree, or directly on the tree, if you’re not worried about killing everything else that might cross it after the gypsies are done with their caterpillar stage.
Good luck.