Page 4 - News On 7 June 2021

INVASIVE SPECIES, GYPSY MOTH
written by: Mary Jane Goodchild
I would like to bring your attention to an Invasive Species, GYPSY MOTH!! Last year we were invaded by small moths flying in the air
around our outdoor spaces. It all begins in the spring when we notice these tiny worms making their way down our trees on a spiker
type web. When they reach the ground, they travel to the nearest tree trunk to climb up and eat the leaves. Most times you can hear
them munching on the leaves as we sit out to enjoy our surroundings.
During the fall and winter, you may have noticed sizeable patches of white masses on our trees. These masses contain hundreds of
eggs just waiting to burst open with these tiny worms. I have thousands in my back yard. These egg masses survive the winter months
and when the weather warms up they burst open.
They eat the leaves until they are fully grown. You will see they are black with red dots on their backs. These worms can eat an
average of one square foot per worm. That is a lot of leaves. Once they are at this stage, they go into a cocoon stage. Brown cocoons
on the bark of the tree. Hard to see at this stage. These worms come out of their cocoons as a light brown small moth. At this time,
they fly around until they are ready to mate with the female. The females stay on the tree bark until the male comes to fertilize her so
she can lay more eggs. The cycle begins all over again. The female is darker multicolour brown that camouflage with the tree bark.
The male and female then die.
These moths do not have any predators to get rid of them. In some areas of Ontario, they are aerial
spraying many parks and more. The spray they are using is Biopesticide that does not harm animals,
birds and people. They do the spraying very early in the morning. I have not seen any indication for
plans to spray in our area and county. I would like to encourage people to ask their council and MPs to
help with this problem.

I belong to the Ontario Forestry
association and they are having a
webinar about the Gypsy moth on June
10, 2021 from 7 pm. – 8:30 pm. If
anyone is interest in learning more go
to
https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca
/learn/webinar-series

You can also go online to find out more
about this invasive species.

madocchamer@gmail.com