Gypsy Moth summer maintenance
Provided by BioForest
Summer is here. Thanks to everyone who has burlap trapped their tree or is helping to reduce the gypsy moth population. It is now more than halfway through the gypsy moth larval stage, and you should be seeing some caterpillars in the next couple of weeks preparing for adulthood. Like other moths and butterflies, these caterpillars will build themselves a pupal case to help protect themselves during this metamorphosis process.
They will stay in these pupal casings for up to 17 days before they emerge in their adult form. Therefore, this stage is ideal for homeowners to help stop future caterpillars from eating their trees by removing the pupal casing and destroying them.
It is important to mention that with the end of the gypsy moth larval stage, trees that have been damaged will need help. Help trees by watering them on the hot summer days to help them get essential resources required to make up for what they lost over spring.
Now that summer is here, the Town is looking forward to an upcoming contest in August. Residents will be called upon to become a “Super Scraper” to help save the tree canopy by scraping off gypsy moth egg masses from local trees. Each egg mass laid could contain 500-plus tiny hungry caterpillars for next year’s hatch, so be on the lookout for contest details at the end of the month on social media, @townofpelhamontario.
If you are interested in learning more, please register yourself at our volunteers’ email volunteers@bioforest.ca. In the future years of this program, you will receive training on assessing the health of individual trees and identifying other invasive species.