What to do as the gypsy moths lay their eggs

Those large brown moths that seem to be everywhere right now are the next life stage of those same caterpillars that defoliated acres of trees in the Northwest Corner earlier this summer.

Yes, the gypsy moth caterpillars are all grown up now and are laying egg masses in preparation for next year.

In his weekly column in The Lakeville Journal, on Page B3, John Harney Jr. talks about the moths and recommends that anyone with a particularly bad infestation get in touch with a tree expert. He recommends David Beers, who is a forester with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

It seems that everyone in the Northwest Corner in the past week has been trying to figure out what to do about the moths (and their egg masses). 

Here is some advice from Beers. In response to a question about what the average property owner can do, he warned that, “First of all, this advice is really only financially and logistically practical for an individual tree or a small number of trees.” 

He further warned that  “caterpillars can crawl, or get blown from one tree to another. So egg mass control efforts are most effective on single trees or groups of trees separated from other trees.”

But, he noted, “On the other hand, something is better than nothing.”

His suggestions: “Once the moths have finished laying the light brown furry egg masses (by late August) and the leaves are off the trees (by late October), the egg masses can then be scraped off the trees or sprayed. 

“Each mass should be entirely removed and put in soapy water for two days before discarding the remains in the trash. The egg masses can also be sprayed and soaked with an agricultural soap or a horticultural oil that specifies that gypsy moth eggs are among the pests it kills.

“It is fairly simple for anyone to do the scraping work on the bottom part of the trunk, but the egg masses are all over the bark on the entire tree, including branches. 

“Again, something is better than nothing.

To treat the entire tree, it is best to hire a certified arborist.”

The state’s list of tree specialists can be found online at https://ctpa.org/wp-content/uploads/CT-Arborists-List.pdf.