Male Gypsy Moth

Gypsy Moth at the Crossings
Gypsy Moth Gypsy Moths are here at the Crossings! They are currently at the stage where they feed at night (you can here their poop like it is a gentle rain in the forest, yuck!) and hide in a cool and shady place during the day. This is when you might see them crawling on your deck, house or any place you wouldn't expect to see them. If you are in the woods you may see little pits of leaves fall to the ground. These critters are not very efficient eaters, wasting good little pieces of leaves. As they grow and get hungrier, they will start to feed 24 hours a day. And they get really big. They start to pupate around the beginning of July. It is a good idea for everyone to educate themselves about these beasts that are eating on our oak trees. The property owners have authorized the board to assess each lot owner for gypsy moth spraying during the Annual Property Owners Meeting. The Plan There will be no spraying this year (2007). Another survey of egg masses will be conducted in the fall (2007) and if the gypsy moth population is high enough to meet the State of West Virginia's criteria for spraying, the board will commit to the State run spray program for the spring 2008 Learn more about the State Program here

	Male Gypsy Moth (brown) with Female (white) in June. The female is so heavy with the eggs, she does not fly. She emits a pheromone that attracts the brown male moth so they can mate. Photographer - John H. Ghent, USDA Forest Service, United States

	Female Gypsy Moths laying eggs in June after mating. Photographer - John H. Ghent, USDA Forest Service, United States

	From June through the Spring you can find these egg masses. Often they are hidden. In low populations such as what we currently have at the Crossings, they will be in wood piles, under the edges of decks or rocks or under objects leaned against a tree. Photographer - Haruta Ovidiu, University of Oradea, Romania

Photograph - Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, United States	Newly hatched caterpillars (very small) on egg mass. The caterpillars hatch in early Spring. Photographer - Louis-Michel Nageleisen, Département de la Santé des Forêts, France



Ballooning - Newly hatched caterpillars (very small) hang on a silk thread and can blow in the wind for miles. This is one of the major ways Gypsy Moth infest new areas. Another way is to move objects that have the egg masses from one location to another. Like taking firewood from the Crossings to your other home. Photographer - A. Steven Munson, USDA Forest Service, United States.


The caterpillar of the Gypsy Moth continue to grow through several stages. As they get big, they are just big eating machines! Photo from USDA Forest Service.

	By June the caterpillars have reached this stage. Photographer - Haruta Ovidiu, University of Oradea, Romania

	See the blue and red dots on the back? Now you know that is a Gypsy Moth caterpillar. Photographer - John H. Ghent, USDA Forest Service, United States

	After these creatures are done eating our oak leaves, they go into the pupa stage (The large one is the female and the small one the male). Photographer - A. Steven Munson, USDA Forest Service, United States

Then they break feel from the pupa case and we start all over again. Neither the male or the female feed during the moth stage. Photographer - John H. Ghent, USDA Forest Service, United States

So what's the big deal? In high populations, the Gypsy Moth caterpillars can eat all the leaves off the oak trees in one season. This severely stresses the trees. Under idea conditions the oaks could survive one to three years of this type of damage. However, our trees are already stressed. If left to nature, we could lose a significant portion of our woodlands. Another ugly aspect of a high population of the caterpillars is that they crawl all over everything. And while they are feeding up in the trees, they are pooping down on you. In high infestations it can sound like a gentle rain. But it is just poop.