Gypsy moth caterpillars rain poop down on upstate NY

[Sugar Cookie]

Caterpillars from a species that has exploded in population in upstate New York are gorging on tree leaves and showering excrement onto residential yards, according to residents from the region.

The invasive bug is in the midst of a population boom and the creatures in larva stage are out in numbers not seen in over a decade, according to media reports and advisories from the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Schuyler County resident Shannan Warick told Syracuse.com she moved her outdoor furniture away from caterpillar-infested trees – and the larva’s droppings.

“It sounds like it’s raining in the backyard,” she said. “It’s really disgusting.”

The little buggers have torn through leafy trees like oaks and moved on to pines and needles to the point where some locals say entire forests have been drained of green. Dwight Relation, owner of Rockwood Maples in West Chazy, told the Press-Republican the caterpillars de-leafed his oaks, pines and white birches.

“They just kept eating and eating and eating,” Relation told the paper, which compared the property to a scene out of Hitchcock or Kafka.

“There’s no green vegetation at all,” he added. “Everything’s gone. It almost looks like it got hit with a nuke … like a chemical, and it just killed everything in sight for hundreds of yards.”

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recommends scraping egg masses off of trees or drowning caterpillars in soapy water – but warns against touching them because the hairs on their back can cause skin irritation.

Their eggs alone can be a nuisance.

“Gypsy moth will lay its egg masses on anything outdoors, it doesn’t have to be trees,” DEC Forester Rob Cole said during a Facebook Live on the outbreak.

“It’ll lay egg masses on the side of your house, on your outdoor equipment, on your patio furniture.”

Chris Koetzle, supervisor of the town of Glenville, told News 10 ABC he feels “stuck” without a lot of answers.

“They’re talking about individually drowning the caterpillar – which there are millions of them – so that’s not really practical,” Koetzle said.

Gypsy moth caterpillars rain poop down on upstate NY

Caterpillars from a species that has exploded in population in upstate New York are gorging on tree leaves and showering excrement onto residential yards, according to residents from the region.

nypost.com

An invasive species, gypsy moth caterpillars were introduced in the United States in the mid-1800s by a businessman looking to increase silk production in the country, DEC forester Rob Cole explained in a Facebook webinar this week.

‘Unfortunately the gypsy moth escaped his cages and got out and started to spread across New England and the northeast, and now have currently spread to the upper mid west, the mid west, and is now heading south,' he said.

He said the agency's chief concern was the caterpillars' potential to cause permanent damage to the region's trees, although most are able to regrow their foliage later in the summer.

The bugs' fur can also irritate human skin, meaning people have been advised to avoid picking them up.

They can eat up to 500 different types of leaf-producing plants, but are partial to the oaks, crabapples, willow, birch, pine, maple and spruce trees that are abundant upstate, according to the DEC.


The agency said the caterpillars will stop being a problem in July, when most of them encase themselves in their cocoons and become moths.

Until then, however, residents may need to get used to a forest landscape that's looking a little out of season

Upstate NY hit by explosion of gypsy moth caterpillars stripping trees

An outbreak of gypsy moth caterpillars has been devastating trees and leaving a trail of excrement behind in upstate New York this June, as environmentalists warn of the damage they cause.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Sevens My Charm]

That’s freaky! I remember collecting katava worms for fishing as a kid

 

[Sejanus]

If it eats, it shits.
Rather the way of things.

Google how much insect poop is in processed food.
I dare ya!