As you can see, even the tiny first instar gypsy moth larvae are destructive. My neighbor warned me 2 weeks ago that they’d hatched. I looked up into the white oak tree that straddles our property line yesterday and sure enough, the leaves are already full of holes. Gypsy moths can eat 9 square feet of leaves in their lifetime.
Last year we were left off the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) spraying program when one person in our neighborhood filed a complaint. Perhaps that person saw the damage the caterpillars did to our neighborhood trees last summer—it was heartbreaking—because nobody filed a complaint this year. The crop duster began skimming the tops of the trees at the crack of dawn yesterday morning.
My neighbor informed me of another charming gypsy moth development. She chatted with a professor of entomology that lives in our neighborhood, and he indicated there’s a virus that can kill the caterpillars. That would be great news. I researched it online and there is indeed a virus that causes the insides of the caterpillar to liquefy. Here’s the bad news. She said that when they fall from the tree they explode and leave behind a purple dye that is impossible to remove from clothing. It happened to her last summer.
That will definitely add a whole new level of “ick” to gardening this summer.