Swarms of moths take over!

After about a month-long respite, the forest tent caterpillars that plagued the district in May and June are back–sort of.
Actually, they now can be seen as tiny tan brown moths clinging to almost every street light and building in town as more and more of them emerge from their cocoons this week.
“I think I first noticed them on July 4 but every day there will be more and more now,” said Mark Breon, forest health technician for the Ministry of Natural Resources here.
The moths, which only live for an average of 10 days, now are laying their eggs on some of the same trees they had munched on as “army worms” a few weeks ago.
“Each moth lays about three bands of eggs, with between 30-50 eggs in each band,” noted Breon.
These egg bands can be found on small branches and twigs, with the thickest branches being no larger than a pencil, he added.
Although Breon said swatting at moths might not be as easy as shovelling army worms into garbage bags, he stressed homeowners can prepare for next year’s onslaught.
“One thing you can do is pick those bands off trees, provided the tree branches can be reached. You can either clip off the twigs, or, if you can, scrape off the eggs,” he noted.
In related news, Breon said the damage wreaked by the forest tent caterpillar invasion was in line with what the MNR had forecasted after counting the number and location of eggs bands last fall.
“We did an aerial tour last week and they covered us from Atikokan to the Manitoba border, and the Minnesota border to Dryden, with the only exception being for some of Quetico Park,” he remarked.
And those who did their best to kill as many of the voracious critters as possible this year should brace themselves–they haven’t peaked in their four-year cycle yet.
“People are basically going to have to do the same thing next year,” said Breon. “Killing them might have protected your trees this year but it’s other factors that really affect the overall population.
“We did not get a late frost this year, and the ‘friendly fly’ population [which feeds on caterpillar pupae] has not caught up with them yet so there should be no real impact to the caterpillar population,” he added.
The MNR will have a more exact indication of how great an invasion to expect next spring once they’ve completed their egg band count in late September or early October.