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Holy Gypsy moth caterpillars

Took the dog for a walk at my sportsmens club today and wow, caterpillars everywhere by the thousands. I've heard some of you mention them before but to see it and hear about it are two different things. These things ate trees completely bare. Even the conifers were stripped clean. I never saw anything like it before. They were literally raining from the sky.

I have seen this spike about 20 yrs. ago in the Berkshires. Whole mountains completely bare. In the woods you could hear the crunching of leaves being eaton by billions of caterpillars. It was Erie.

It seems amazing in spots. Last week in Z6, east side of the reservoir (not in it, just that general direction) while MTB riding I kept thinking it was rain, but it was caterpillar poo falling from the trees - YUCK.

I saw on face book some cycling friends posting pic's from areas of CT and southern MA that were horrific. tires of mountain bikes so covered they looked like they were packed with mud, but it was actually caterpillar poo, chunks of leaves they have dropped and the little beasties themselves all smooshed onto the tires - frames, riders. Even some road cyclist friends had similar pic's in those areas.

NASTY!

Around my house is bad....never seen it this bad, oaks are hardest hit......no acorns this year. Really gross for sure

Last year, my son had them so bad in his back yard the droppings turned his pool brown... nothing he could do to get the pool to stay clean. They decimated his oak trees.

I took a hike with some friends in Gloucester this weekend and the woods were decimated. It looked like fall, all the foliage was gone and the constant raining sound you mentioned Will was eerie. What's interesting is a few of my hunting spots, beverly/wenham/essex area, have almost no damage, but head just a few miles further out onto cape anne and the trees are devastated. I hope they don't make their way into my oaked areas.

this whole caterpillar situation can definitely work with us hunters though. because no doubt the affected trees will have suffering acorn crops meaning if you key in on spots with abundant crops there's going to be more activity. same thing happened last year, even being on the same road just different areas, some of my spots were loaded with acorns and some had zero. the caterpillars were that spotty in some places. also it seems to some extent the caterpillars have succumbed to the fungus that kills them or something because I've just recently noticed a lot dying.

Last year was horrible in the Lakeville area. Oaks in my hunting areas were wiped out. The caterpillars ran out of food and started eating hemlock . This year it's a bit better. I haven't seen a decent acorn crop around my area in years. Hoping for something this fall. Most oaks still have some leaves on even though they are just pieces, not whole leaves.

Its odd how it works. One zone 7 spot has them every where. Trees are basically bare. Even the pine trees. It looks like lawn trimmings dumped it the woods. Than another zone 7 spot like 15 minutes away has zero sign of any. The woods are lush and green.

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