winter moths on the move

**"C.L. Fornari" c*@mail.com**

The UMASS website - www.umassgreeninfo.org  has the lastest information about the winter moth.  This caterpillar attacks (and strips) oaks, maples, birch, 
cherry, plum, apple trees, plus blueberries and roses.  I have recently been on properties where they were also eating the peony buds!  

The moths fly in early winter, the caterpillars hatch just at bud-break, and they feed until late June when they drop to the soil to pupate.   They are on the move 
from Canada south...  people in eastern Mass have stripped trees right now.
C.L.

> Hi, C.L.!
> 
> We haven't seen this pest (yet) in CT., but I expect it's making 
> its way south.  In checking the cooperative extension offices 
> further north and east than Fairfield county where I volunteer, no 
> one has seen it or had clients contacting us about it.  We'd like 
> to be well-prepared for its arrival.  Can you refer me to some 
> sources of info like websites, etc.?
> 
> Also, does this pest prefer certain trees like sycamores, etc.?
> 
> Thanks and regards,
> 
> Lorraine Ballato
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: C.L. Fornari
> Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 6:45 PM
> To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
> Subject: Re: [GWL] caterpillers
> 
> Winter Moth Caterpillars are the main landscape topic here in the 
> Northeast.  Trees all over Massachusetts have been stripped.  A 
> third of the calls on my radio
> program are about this pest, and I am writing articles about Winter 
> Moth and being interviewed by other writers every week.
> 
> 1. Winter moth is a new pest moving across the NE - similar to 
> Gypsy Moths twenty or thirty years ago.
> 2. Most effective (and least toxic) treatment is to spray Bt or a 
> product that has Spinosad as it's main ingredient - spraying at bud 
> break and repeat until the larvae
> drops to the ground to pupate, sometime in mid to late June.
> 3. The fly that is being released lays it's egg on leaves - when 
> these eggs are eaten by the winter moth caterpillars the 
> caterpillars die.  It will take five or more
> years for the fly to have some control.  The fly does not harm ANY 
> other insect, bird etc - well tested.  In the meantime, birds are 
> eating the caterpillars and
> feeding them to their young.
> 4. Denuded trees should be able to put out a second growth of 
> leaves - trees stressed by other factors such as drought might be 
> more severely affected.  Home
> landscapers need to be reminded that the best way to help trees is 
> to mulch around the tree and water deeply once a week if it hasn't 
> rained.  (Do not be tempted
> to fertilize to push new growth.)
> 5. Take it from Rozanne Rozanadana (character played by Gilda 
> Radner in Saturday Night Live): "It's always something."
> 
> Not everyone is panicked.  In the local paper, a woman was 
> interviewed about this pest as she sat with a cocktail in her back 
> yard.  While she was being
> interviewed, two caterpillars fell into her gin and tonic from the 
> trees above.  As she complained about the winter moth, she dipped 
> her finger into the glass and
> scooped out the caterpillars.  "Why waste a good drink?"  she 
> commented before her next sip.
> 
> C.L.
> C.L. Fornari
> www.gardenlady.com
> 
> 
> 
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