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Forest Tent Caterpillar - (Malacosoma disstria Hubner)

Tent Caterpillars (1995) - Book by Terrence D. Fitzgerald (Cornell Series in Arthropod Biology). Used copies are $4.50 and up at Amazon.com.

  • General Information
  • Niles Town Hall Informational Meeting, June 16, 2006
  • Westside Lake Association Meeting, July 1, 2006
  • Skaneateles Lake Photographs - Taken between 28 May and 15 June 2006
  • Outbreaks by Region Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Southeast, West, Canada
  • Who to Contact
  • Treatment & Controls
  • History: Articles About Earlier Outbreaks
  • Research

    • General Information

  • Forest Pests.org - Has some excellent photographs of the forest tent caterpillar. including over 100 thumbnails depicting various stages of the life cycle. More images may be found at Forestry Images.
  • Tent Caterpillars and Gypsy Moths - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation offers a variety of helpful information including All you ever wanted to know about Forest Tent Caterpillars by Naja Kraus; Common Tent Caterpillars by Douglas C. Allen (from NY Forest Owner, September/October, 1992); 1994 - The Year of the Defoliator by Douglas C. Allen (NY Forest Owner, January/February, 1995); Forest Tent Caterpillar Defoliator Report 2005
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hubner) - U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
  • Caterpillars of Eastern Forests - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team, Morgantown, West Virginia. FHTET-96-34. 113 pp.
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar - Information on Life History, Population Outbreaks and Factors Leading to the Collapse of Outbreaks. From Terrence D. Fitzgerald's Social Caterpillars page.
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar - Vermont Division of Forestry
  • Eastern and Forest Tent Caterpillars and Their Control - Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar - New Hampshire Division of Forests and lands
  • Forest Tent Caterpillars in Wisconsin - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
  • Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources: Forest Tent Caterpillar
  • An Update on the Caterpillars of Eastern Massachusetts: What to Expect in 2006 (pdf) - By Robert D. Childs, Entomologist, Plant, Soil and Insect Science Department, University of Massachusetts and Deborah C. Swanson, Horticulturalist, Plymouth County Extension. Both are associated with the UMass Extension's Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program .
  • Forest Tent Caterpillars in Minnesota
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar in the Upper Midwest
  • Déjà vu: Forest Tent Caterpillar Revisited - FPM News, Januagy-March, 2006. The article was written by Dr. Thomas Hall, Forest Pathologist, Forest Pest Management, Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.
  • What is the distance that a forest tent caterpillar can travel in the caterpillar stage and later in the moth stage? - Google Answers, 22 March 2006.

    Westside Lake Association Meeting - July 1, 2006

    Meeting for Skaneateles Lake property owners was held on Saturday, July 1, 2006 at 9:30 a.m. in the Midlakes United Methodist Church, New Hope, Cayuga County, New York. Kim Adams, State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry, gave a presentation on the forest tent caterpillar problem. Several members volunteered to provide information on egg mass counts which would indicate the probable caterpillar population for next year. This information will be sent to members in the Fall newsletter.

    Meeting on the Forest Tent Caterpillar Infestation for Residents of the South West corner of Skaneateles Lake

    On June 16th, 2006 there was a public meeting at 3:00 p.m. at the Niles Town Hall, 5923 New Hope Road in the town of Niles, Cayuga County, New York. "If you desire a better understanding of the infestation, the implications, possible resolutions, etc, reserve a place by calling Caroline Head, Town Clerk at 315-497-0066." The Niles Town Hall is open on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday between 9:00 a.m. and noon. Email for the Town of Niles is niles@baldcom.net. Mark Whitmore, an entomolgist and volunteer and the Finger Lakes Land Trust was the speaker. The meeting was organized by Town Supervisor Al Dougherty. See also Board Meeting for the Town of Niles, June 1, 2006 on the Tent Caterpillar Problem, excerpted below:
    Supervisor [Alson B.] Dougherty informed the Board of the mail and phone calls he has been receiving concerning the tent caterpillar problem along the lower area of Skaneateles Lake. The lake residents are very upset. He is sending out a letter to property owners in the affected area, informing them of a meeting he has set up on June 16th with Marc Whitmore, an entomologist from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. He has been told by Mr. Whitmore that any effective spraying would have to be done earlier in the spring, and that the DEC would not allow any spraying on the lake. The problem is cyclical and is normally confined to a specific area, but for some reason, has spread farther this year. Mr. Dougherty stated that the DEC refuses to spray, and that the town cannot get involved in the matter. Attorney [Andrew] Fusco stated that it would be against the law for the town to spend money that only benefited a few people and not the whole town.
    Supervisor Dougherty asked the Board for approval to pay the mileage to New Hope for Mr. Whitmore. Councilwoman [Alberta] Winters and Councilman [Bernard] Juli objected, stating that, as part of his job, he is already being compensated, and that it would set a precedent.
    Attorney Fusco excused himself from the meeting at 8:03pm to drive down to the lake and observe the problem before dark."

    Skaneateles Lake

    Margaret Vail Anderson took these photographs of the southwest end of Skaneateles Lake in May and June, 2006:
    Note: 23 May 2007 - No sign of forest tent caterpillar infestation at the southwestern end of Skaneateles Lake.
    Note: 1 June 2008 - No sign of forest tent caterpillar infestation at the southwestern end of Skaneateles Lake.
    looking east (6/15/06) - From Glen Haven Road, driving down from New Hope
    trees on lake's edge (6/4/06) - Southwest end of lake on Glen Haven Road
    the cliffs (6/04/06) - Southeast end of lake
    caterpillars on sign (6/4/06) - Glen Haven Road (and they are not looking too healthy)
    caterpillars on mailbox (6/4/06) - Southwest end of lake on Glen Haven Road
    defoliation near Wickwire Point (5/30/06) - Southeast end of lake
    defoliation along Glen Haven Road (5/30/06)
    caterpillars on railing (5/30/06)
    caterpillars on deck (5/30/06)
    flies (5/30/06) - The fly with the red eyes may be a friendly fly (Sarcophaga aldrichi), a predator of the FTC
    marooned caterpillars (5/30/06)
    caterpillars on kayak (5/30/06)
    caterpillars on garbage can (5/30/06)
    forest tent caterpillars on car (5/28/06)
    caterpillars on porch (5/28/06)
    caterpillars on roof (5/28/06)
    caterpillars on railing (5/28/06)
    caterpillars overhead (5/28/06)
    defoliated oak tree (5/28/06)
    more defoliated oaks (5/28/06) - The tree leaning over the water fell onto the blue boathouse during the winter of 2006/2007. See photo (6/3/07)
    defoliation near Staghorn Point (5/28/06) - Southeast end of lake

    Outbreaks by Region

    Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, Southeast, West, Canada

    Connecticut

  • Coming to a favorite tree near you: Tent caterpillars chewing up leaves throughout state - By Brigitte Ruthman, Republican-American (Waterbury, Connecticut), June 14, 2006. "It can be a crisis for a favorite fruit tree that will have to regrow its leaves after the caterpillars depart later this month, but it's not destroying the forest, said David Rosgen, wildlife biologist at the White Memorial Foundation in Litchfield."
  • A Message From The Birds (Editorial) - Hartford Courant, May 30, 2006. "This is more ominous than it may seem. A decline in forest songbirds, who are major predators of caterpillars, can lead to more frequent outbreaks of caterpillars, which in turn leads to "massive defoliation and heavy tree mortality."

    Massachusetts

  • They're very hungry caterpillars: One species is sated; 3 still ravaging leaves - Megan Tench, Boston Globe, June 21, 2006. "Confounded specialists fear that this year's caterpillar explosion is the beginning of a cycle of outbreaks that could get worse in coming years. The scientists are trying to find ways to control them."
  • Caterpillar population explosion hits Massachusetts - By Trudy Tynan, Boston Globe, June 17, 2006. "It's a scientific puzzle," said Bob Childs, director of the Urban Forestry Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts' Amherst campus, where entomologists are trying to figure out what may have led to a boom this spring in both native and introduced species. There has to have been something missing from nature's system of checks and balances that has allowed them to be so successful," Childs said. "We've never seen numbers of the native species like this."
  • Wormy weather on the Cape - By Rich Eldred, The Cape Codder, June 16, 2006.
  • Caterpillars, controversy in West Tisbury - By Dan Cabot, The Martha'sVineyard Times, June 15, 2006. "Mr. Brown was frank. "We're in bad shape," he said "All four of the nastiest caterpillars are having banner years right now."
  • Caterpillar Invasion Returns for Encore, Stripping Trees, Shrubbery, in Our Hair - By Ian Fein, Vineyard Gazette, June 9, 2006.
  • They're back .... - Janet Hefler, Martha's Vineyard Times, June 8, 2006. "Caterpillar tales are spreading around the Island like horror stories, as the Vineyard - like other parts of southeastern Massachusetts - undergoes one of the most memorable caterpillar outbreaks in decades."
  • Caterpillars gorge in WMass - By Stan Freeman, Springfield Republican, June 7, 2006.
  • Trees across the Greater Taunton region are losing their leaves as the foliage falls victim to a caterpillar feeding frenzy - By Gerry Tuoti, Taunton Gazette, June 4, 2006. "The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation estimated that in 2005, nearly 270,000 acres in the Commonwealth were defoliated by caterpillars."
  • Caterpillars Drive Cape Campers Out - WCVB, NewsCenter 5, Boston Channel, May 29, 2006. "NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that at the Bay View Campground in Bourne, the creepy-crawlers could be found on picnic tables, in juice cups, on lawn chairs and in tents." [The story does not indicate which type of caterpillar]
  • An infestation at Williams College - By Christopher Marcisz, Berkshire Eagle, May 24, 2006.
  • [Williams] College Tries Tougher Tactic with Caterpillars - May 23, 2006. "After consultation with college biologists and with an expert on the forest tent caterpillar at the University of Massachusetts, the College has decided to begin spraying the parts of campus most necessary for the upcoming Commencement and Reunion activities with a product called Conserve SC. The active ingredient in Conserve SC is spinosad, an organic neurotoxin. After the caterpillars come in contact with the substance or ingest it, they die in two to three days. While Conserve SC is considered safe, college officials plan to apply it as sparingly and carefully as possible."
  • To the Williams Community.... - Dave Fitzgerald, Horticulturist and Grounds Supervisor, May 9, 2006
  • Attack of the caterpillars - By Clark Richardson, Williams Record, May 10, 2006.
  • Caterpillars come to town - By Patrick O'Connor and Richie Davis, Greenfield Recorder, May 9, 2006.
  • Scourge of trees may be back to munch again - By Jessica Fargen, The Boston Herald, March 29, 2006 p007. "A scourge of leaf-devouring caterpillars that hasn't struck the Bay State since the 1980s is expected to return this spring and summer, causing a massive loss of tree leaves statewide, a natural resources expert warns. "It has the potential to be very bad," said Deborah Swanson, a horticulturist with the Plymouth County Extension-University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Extension Office in Hanson."
  • A severe caterpillar outbreak expected, putting foliage at risk - By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe, March 12, 2006. "The number of caterpillars south of Boston has been steadily increasing since the 1990s, according to specialists." "Statewide, [in 2005] about 250,000 acres were defoliated by gypsy moths and tent caterpillars..."
  • Caterpillars denuding area forests - By Rebecca Hyman, Taunton Gazette, July 4, 2004. ""It’s very, very bad this year. I haven’t seen it this bad in a long, long time," Dalpe said."

    Minnesota

  • Late summer sees spread of forest tent caterpillar - By Matt Bewley, Fergus Falls Daily Journal, July 31, 2006. "Lubben sprayed along the Otter Tail Lake shoreline again this year, focusing on the north shore, east of the point. “We used fungus spores,” he said. “It germinates in their stomachs. If they’re eating good, a lot of times, in the next day of two, they’ll be toast.”
  • Army worms invading lawns around area - By Sarah Horner, Fergus Falls Daily Journal, June 9, 2006. "Forest tent caterpillars that typically act as a temporary bother during the summer could turn into a long-term enemy if not confronted properly, according to an expert with the Department of Natural Resources."
  • Pesky caterpillars lunchin' on leaves in Minnesota trees; The lifecycle of forest tent caterpillars takes them through a series of growth stages ending when they fly off as moths. To reach that point they have to eat leaves. Lots of leaves. Perhaps 4 million acres of them - By Tom Meersman, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 10, 2001. "Forest tent caterpillars are munching their way across northern Minnesota in an outbreak that is expected to defoliate more than 4 million acres of trees by the end of this month - twice as many as last summer's binge."
  • Northern forest faces tent caterpillar influx - By Tom Meersman, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 23, 2000. "DNR aerial surveys showed that the caterpillars defoliated leaves across about 15,000 acres in 1998. Last year the number shot up to 488,000 acres."
  • Voracious Tent Caterpillars Leave North Woods Nearly Leafless - By Gretchen Legler, St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN), June 24, 1990.
  • Pesky caterpillars lunchin' on leaves in Minnesota trees - By Tom Meersman, Star Tribune, June 10, 2001. "Forest tent caterpillars are munching their way across northern Minnesota in an outbreak that is expected to defoliate more than 4 million acres of trees by the end of this month - twice as many as last summer's binge."
  • Northern forest faces tent caterpillar influx - By Tom Meersman, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 23, 2000. "The populations usually crash when the insects become so thick in a year that there's no longer enough foliage to support them, and they starve by the millions. Parasites, predators and weather also play a role in reducing the caterpillar population. Peak years for tent caterpillar outbreaks in Minnesota have been 1922, 1937, 1952, 1967, 1978 and 1990."
  • Tent Caterpillar Outbreak Expected - St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN), April 25, 1990, p. 2B. "Kearby said more than 200,000 acres of defoliation is expected in Marinette County into Oconto County as a result of the comeback. "Following that, we'll have a lot of flies again in July in large numbers," he added."

    New Hampshire

  • Newport, N.H., overrun with caterpillar infestation - By Rebecca Miller, Eagle Times (Claremont, NH), June 14, 2005. "After bringing in a forestry representative Thursday to view the infestation, the town arranged to spray the infected trees Sunday morning. Lee Stevens of the Log Cabin Nursery in Claremont took care of the spraying with an organic pesticide called Conserve SC." The Town Manager is Dan O'Neill. They plan on spraying again in 2006.
  • FO&M hastily sprays to thwart caterpillar fiasco - By Alix Cody, The Dartmouth, May 25, 2005
  • Recommended Actions Regarding Forest Tent Caterpillar (FTC) Defoliation on New Hampshire Forestlands - By Kyle Lombard, New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands, Forest Health Section. "In 2005 defoliation increased from 10,000 acres to 70,000 acres in Sullivan County and parts of Grafton, Merrimack, Cheshire, and Hillsborough Counties."
  • Caterpillars could cut maple syrup production - New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, NH), November 26, 2005.
  • Caterpillars invade Granite State forests - New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, NH), October 26, 2005.
  • Syrup producers worry about caterpillars' toll - Some 70,000 acres are defoliated - By Chelsea Conaboy, Concord Monitor (NH), October 24, 2005.

    New York

  • A million little bites take quite a toll on trees - By Brian Nearing, Albany Times Union, May 24, 2007.
  • CNY Trees in Jeopardy: Tent caterpillars have eaten at them for years - By Delen Goldberg, Syracuse Post Standard, May 21, 2007, p. 1. "Three consecutive years of severe defoliation can lead to as much as one in four trees dying," Carlson said. Heavy defoliation makes the trees work hard trying to grow leaves a second time in one season. The process stresses the trees and makes them susceptible to drought and disease. "After that happens to them three years in a row, they can no longer support their bulk and they can die." [Jerry Carlson is an entomologist at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany.]
  • Tent Caterpillar Infestations Still a Problem in Areas - Evan Geibel, Cortland Standard, May 18, 2007. "In Fitzgeralds' survey areas in Tully, Solon and the south end of Skaneateles Lake, the "epicenters" of the recent infestations, it appears that most of the caterpillars succumbed to furia gastropachae, a fungal pathogen, before they could lay their eggs."
  • CNY Tent Caterpillars On The Decline - WSYR-TV, Syracuse, May 14, 2007.
  • Act now on global warming or suffer later, experts say - By Shawn Dell Joyce, Times Herald-Record, January 07, 2007. "Gone is the synchronicity of pests and predators. Baby birds used to hatch during peak caterpillar time, helping reduce the population of pests. The caterpillars are now on global-warming time, based on temperature rather than the length of days. Tent caterpillars caused many trees to lose their foliage this year. Gypsy moth caterpillars damaged chestnut and oak trees."We are seeing a shift from the beech, birch and maple that our region is famous for, to hardier hickory, oak and pine," says Wolfe."
  • Answer your questions on the forest tent caterpillar - By Holly Wise, Observer-Dispatch, April 7, 2007. "Between 1950 and 1953, 15 million acres statewide were defoliated, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension Educator Steve Vandermark, who has researched this topic extensively. Between 1980 and 1982, 200,000 acres were defoliated in Delaware County and between 1989 and 1992 90,000 acres were defoliated in northern NY."
  • Caterpillars enjoy our trees: Infestation heavier this year as gypsy moths also attack - By Sandie Eldred Wilson, Elmira Star-Gazette, July 30, 2006. "They're waving south," said Walt Nelson, a horticulturist at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Elmira. "We just saw a few spots (here) last year." Nelson said damage is now being seen in Allegany, Chemung, Livingston, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins counties...Cotton-Hanlon has already sprayed acreage north of Syracuse for the forest tent caterpillar."
  • Worst Outbreak in 50 Years Winding Down - By Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post Standard, June 26, 2006.
  • Bug put local expert through school - By Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post Standard, June 26, 2006. Dylan Parry is an entomologist at at the SUNY College of Environmantal Science and Forestry who has published about 15 papers in scientific journals about the forest tent caterpillar. See, for example, Macrogeographic clines in fecundity, reproductive allocation, and offspring size of the forest tent caterpillar Malacosoma disstria by Parry D.; Goyer R.A.; Lenhard G.J., Ecological Entomology, Volume 26, Number 3, August 2001, pp. 281-291(11).
  • 'I don't use chemicals here' - By Jerry Rosen, Syracuse Post Standard, June 26, 2006.
  • Summer of the Caterpillar - By Terry Ettinger, News 10 Now, June 25, 2006. (Transcript and video clip)
  • Wet, weird spring bugs out - By Danielle Furfaro, Albany Times Union, June 21, 2006. "We should see new leaves on those trees in the next week or two. But it takes a tremendous amount of energy," said regional forester Paul Trotta. "The good news is since we've had a lot of rain, there's been an incredible amount of soil moisture."
  • Forest tent caterpillar is notorious, but not worst pest - By Dan Shapley Poughkeepsie Journal, June 19, 2006. "Next year could be worse for the Catskills, as the caterpillars continue their multi-year boom and bust cycle."
  • Of gypsy moth and tent caterpillars - By Dan Daly, Times-Herald Record (Middletown), June 18, 2006.
  • Tents in trees mean bunches of munchers - Dave Rossie, Ithaca Journal, June 17, 2006.
  • Caterpillar invasion - By: Kathy Young, Capital News 9 (Albany), 6/16/2006.
  • Tent Caterpillar Damage I-81 - NewsChannel 9 WSYR, 6/15/2006. Video and story. Jennifer Lewke visits a camp on Skaneateles Lake. The story also states that the DEC hopes to have a damage assessment within the next few weeks. (Story and video clip).
  • Colton Spraying a No-Go: Tent Caterpillars: Town Won't Appeal Ruling Blocking Action - By Benjamin Ray, Watertown Daily Times, June 14, 2006. (Not available online but the paper's website provides contacts). 370 people in the Town of Colton signed a petition asking the Town Council to spray BT (bacillus thuringiensis) on town trees."The Town Council met Sunday to approve Tuesday's spraying, which would have been done by Duflo Spray Chemical of New Bremen. Duflo originally would have received $25,000 to spray the town, but requests poured in to spray adjacent areas such as Higley Flow, bumping the price up to $35,000."...."Mary S. Rutley, an entomologist and former professor at SUNY Potsdam, filed an order to show cause in court Monday, and state Supreme Court Justice David Demarest issued a restraining order stopping the town from spraying trees with bacillus thuringiensis.." Rutley, John I. Green and William L. Romey advised against spraying because it was too late in the season but Mrs. Rutley has offered to to work with the council and local residents on spraying for caterpillars in 2007. Phone number for the Town of Colton is 315-262-2824. Henry R. Ford is the Supervisor. Town Board member Grace J. Hawley was also quoted in the article. (See Contacts for the Town of Colton.) See also 99 News Headlines for Tuesday, 6/13/06 "Entomologist Mary Rutley, who filed an article 78 challenge, argues the town did not follow the State Environmental Quality Review Act by not holding a separate public meeting on the review and simply passing the motions to go ahead and spray. Town Supervisor Hank Ford is furious with the decision, as he believes a petition signed by more than 300 town residents supporting the sprayins is a mandate from a majority of the people in the town."
  • Gypsy Moths Hunger for a Real Leafy Diet - By Nancy O'Donnell, Albany Times Union, June 11, 2006. "this year is poised as possibly one where the population of gypsy moth, as well as Eastern and forest tent caterpillars, is on the upswing. Particular areas in the watch zone include the Catskills and the Lake George Region of the Adirondacks, where their favorite tree, the oak, is a popular species."
  • Tents in trees mean bunches of munchers - By David Rossie, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, June 9, 2006.
  • Saranac Lake hires caterpillar control firm - By Mike Lynch, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 10, 2006. "In response to the recent outbreak of forest tent caterpillars on village-owned trees, Olympic Tree and Land Management will be spraying pesticides early Monday morning, if the weather allows it."
  • Caterpillars really bite - By Victor Whitman, Times Herald-Record, June 9, 2006. "The state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to do an aerial survey later in June to count dead and damaged trees....This year, it looks to be very severe," said Marianna Quartararo, a horticulture educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Sullivan County. "We may see some tree mortality." [gypsy moth, forest tent and eastern tent caterpillars] ]
  • Caterpillars are on the march, but they won't last - Rick Marsi, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, June 9, 2006. [Gypsy Moth caterpillars]
  • Caterpillars move in for lunch - By Mike Lynch and Noelle Short, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 8, 2006. "According to Gast, Jefferson and Lewis counties found more than 100,000 acres profoundly impacted by forest tent caterpillars last year. Statewide, he said, 650,000 acres were defoliated."..."Quite possibly the numbers are unprecedented in this area", Gast said."...."One of the most severe in the state occurred from 1951 to 1954 and ultimately damaged about 150 million acres."
  • Caterpillars boom; trees suffer - By Amy L. Ashbridge, (Oneonta) Daily Star Online, June 7, 2006.
  • Meanwhile: After the Plague - Verlyn Klinkenborg, International Herald Tribune (originally appeared in the New York Times), June 6. 2006. "The forest tent caterpillars have made their way up into the canopy of the trees, and they have simply erased May."
  • Small pest, big appetite, bad manners - By Bob Gardinier, Albany Times Union, June 4, 2006. "The caterpillars, which usually feast through the end of June, are enjoying their the largest infestation since the early 1980s -- and the reason isn't clear."
  • Tent caterpillars plague forests: SUNY Cortland professor at work on method to control them. - By Evan Geibel, Cortland Standard, June 1, 2006, p. 3. "Terrence Fitzgerald, a SUNY Cortland professor of biological sciences, has been studying the forest tent caterpillar, or FTC, and the less-destructive eastern tent caterpillar for 30 years."
  • Tent Caterpillars Getting Closer - Michael Riecke, Newschannel 9 WSYR, (June 1, 2006) "From the lamp at the driveway, right up to the front door, forest tent caterpillars are taking over JJ Parker’s property in Pompey."
  • Tent Caterpillars Will Soon Become Moths - Newschannel 9 WSYR, 6/1/2006. Story with two videoclips.
  • Creative Ways of Killing Tent Caterpillars - Heather Hegedus, Video, Newschannel 9 WSYR, (May, 2006?)
  • Attack of the Caterpillars - Videoclip, CBS 6, Albany, May 31, 2006.
  • Caterpillars eating their way across CNY - By Andrew Brown, Oneida Daily Dispatch, May 31, 2006.
  • Eastern tent caterpillars causing more destruction - By Benjamin Ray, Watertown Daily Times, May 30, 2006. "Boonville in Oneida County has sprayed trees in the village park, and the village of Potsdam will spend $17,500 to spray trees on 700 acres with Bacillus thuringiensis in the next couple of weeks, in an attempt to kill the caterpillars."
  • Caterpillar species emerging in record numbers - CBS 6, Albany, May 28, 2006 . "The New York invasion began in 2002 in Saint Lawrence County, and has managed to spread across the state over the course of each spring. Last year, the caterpillars managed to defoliate about 650 thousand acres in the state, hitting hardest in central New York and the Adirondacks."
  • Potsdam Caterpillars to be sprayed - News 10 Now. "On Wednesday, May 24th, 2006, the Potsdam Village Board voted unanimously to spray. According to Mike Weil, village administrator "This is the least damaging, the least invasive method other then killing everyone by hand."
  • Potsdam Board to Hold a Special Meeting Today - Watertown Daily Times, May 24, 2006. "Duflo Spray Chemical of New Bremen will use a bacillus thuringiensis spray, a natural bacterium that paralyzes the caterpillar's stomach, on 700 acres around the village. Potsdam will spend about $17,500 on the spraying, which will begin before June 30, if the board accepts the proposal."
  • Caterpillars making hearty meal of trees - By Dan Shapley, Poughkeepsie Journal, May 22, 2006.
  • Potsdam May Spray to Kill Caterpillars - Watertown Daily Times, May 18, 2006. (Not available online)
  • Tent caterpillars are back - By Amy Ohler, News 10 Now, 5/16/2006.
  • The Invasion of the Tent Caterpillars - "Martha Foley and Amy Ivy talk about the eastern and forest tent caterpillar outbreaks across the region, and the best choices for top soil in their weekly gardening chat." Audioclip, May 15, 2006, North Country Public Radio Online.
  • Caterpillars chomping on area trees - By Patricia Breakey, Oneonta Daily Star, 05/10/06. "There were areas of forest tent caterpillar defoliation last year in Schoharie County along Route 145 near Lawyersville and in the Sharon Springs area and in Delaware County in the Grand Gorge area and along the Route 30 corridor south to Margaretville, Innes said." Innes also said that "Delaware County had mass defoliation about 25 years ago, when forest tent worms stripped about 100,000 acres of trees....Normally, trees can survive up to three consecutive years of defoliation, but when the caterpillars hit in the 1980s, many of the trees in Delaware County died after one year."
  • Maple Season Underway - Audioclip, March 28, 2006, North Country Public Radio Online. "Haskell Yancey told Todd Moe some of his trees were stressed last summer by an infestation of tent caterpillars."
  • Mild winter may mean more tree-chomping caterpillars - WCAX TV News, Glens Falls, NY [May 2006]
  • Caterpillars' 'horror show' center stage - By Paul Hetzler, North Country Now, (undated - circa May, 2006). Hetzler is a Commentator for North Country Public Radio and a Program Assistant at Cornell Cooperative Extension, Canton. "Forest and sugar bush owners have even seen significant tree die-offs where the caterpillars have compounded long-term stresses such as drought."..."Timber managers as well are watching how the caterpillar outbreak progresses. It may seem like needless worry over a phenomenon that has been occurring for a few thousand years. Indeed, under ideal conditions only 15 to 20 percent of overstory trees die as a result of two or even three consecutive defoliations, according to Dr. Douglas Allen of SUNY-ESF. But trees have never experienced water stress like they have in the past two decades. It takes two to three years for a tree to recover from prolonged dry spells such as we're having about every other year. Other pests like the scale add stress. As if that wasn't enough, a researcher at the University of Alberta discovered that caterpillar outbreaks in fragmented forests last much longer than those in large tracts of forest."
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar Outbreak Expected to Impact Maple Production - The Pipeline, [Newsletter of the New York State Maple Producers Association, Inc.] Vol. 3, No. 1, March, 2006. According to Naja Kraus, who headed NY DEC's defoliator analysis project in 2005, "159 sites were surveyed by NY DEC foresters for FTC egg masses Oct. 24 - Dec. 14, 2005. Defoliation from FTC is predicted for 2006 on 111 [out of 159] of the sites surveyed." (Naja Kraus, Invasive Plants Program Coordinator, NYS DEC, Warrensburg, 518-623-1263, negraus@gw.dec.state.ny.us). The article also quotes Jerry Carlson, NY DEC's Chief of Forest Health and Protection, who says there may be a "significant decline in defoliator numbers." Carlson also believes that it is "unlikely that DEC will be receiving any US Forest Service assistance for defoliator treatments this year." (518-402-9419, jacarlso@gw.dec.State.ny.us)
  • POTSDAM TRUSTEES APPROVE TENT CATERPILLAR SPRAYING - "THE BOARD APPROVED SPENDING 17-THOUSAND, 500 DOLLARS WEDNESDAY TO HIRE DUFLO AERIAL SPRAYING OUT OF LEWIS COUNTY TO SPREAD A BIO-DEFENSE TO CONTROL THE INSECT, THAT WIPES OUT TREES. CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION INSECT EXPERT STEVE VANDEMARK OF CANTON SAYS THE BUGS ARE GETTING TO BE LARGE, SO THE TIME TO SPRAY IS NOW."
  • Tent caterpillar invasion worst in decades - By Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post Standard, Sunday, May 28, 2006. "Richard Pancoe, supervising forester in Central New York for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said this spring could be the peak of one of the worst invasions to hit the state in decades."
  • Caterpillars, Mild Winter Discussed at Maple Expo - By Corey Fram, Watertown Daily Times, January 29, 2006 (not available online). One of the presenters was Naja E. Kraus of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. "Last summer was considered the worst outbreak of forest tent caterpillars in the north country in 50 years."
  • A Squishy Success: One Sugarbush Owner Hopes the End is in Sight - Audioclip (2:30), North Country Public Radio Online, 6/22/05. John Scarlett, a a blacksmith in Rossie.
  • Caterpillars eat through CNY; It Is One of the Worst Invasions in Decades for the Region.- By Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post-Standard, June 19, 2005. The article is not online but Mark Weiner can be reached at mweiner@syracuse.com.
  • Caterpillars Unwelcome in North Country Trees: Cyclical Forest Tent Outbreak Worst in 50 Years - By Martha Ellen, Watertown Daily Times (NY), June 12, 2005.
  • [APWG] Summer Bug Outbreaks - Press release to all media by Bob Beyfuss, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County, June 2005. "This is actually a very unusual season in that at least 5 different species of leaf eating caterpillars are having population explosions all at the same time."
  • Broome State Forests Unit Management Plan (Draft) - Prepared by the Broome State Forests Unit Management Planning Team (Gerard A. Kachmor and Andrew J. Goeller, Foresters), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, June 2005. "The most significant outbreak in recent years within Broome County occurred in 1994. Most healthy hardwoods can withstand a single defoliation from this insect [Forest Tent caterpillar]. Unfortunately, the 1994 defoliation was accompanied by an Anthracnose infection which killed the year's second crop of leaves. As a result, extensive sugar maple mortality occurred after only one defoliation by the Forest Tent Caterppillar. In 1995, approximately 135 acres of dead sugar maple timber was salvaged on Broome 8 and Broome 9."
  • Tent Caterpillars on the Rise - 12 minute audioclip from North Country Public Radio, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, 06/02/04. "Martha Foley spoke with Steve Van der mark, an educator in natural resources and horticulture with the Cornelll Cooperative Extension Service in St. Lawrence County (315-379-9192)."
  • Tent Caterpillar Outbreak Strips Some CNY Woods - By Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post Standard, June 21, 2004. "I drove through them on the driveway and they hit the windshield like a big cloud of bugs, " Estey said. "Later that week, they descended from all of the trees. They covered the house. I couldn't even get in the cellar door. I had to sweep the door to get in it."
  • Ravenous tent caterpillars - Syracuse Post-Standard, June 26, 2004, pB5 . "It's certainly the largest tent caterpillar outbreak I've ever seen in New York state," said Douglas Allen, an entomologist at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Allen said the largest known outbreak in the state's history occurred in 1951 and 1952, affecting millions of acres. This year, the forest tent caterpillars have devoured leaves from more than 3,000 acres of forest in Central New York. The hardest hit areas are southern Onondaga County and northern Oswego County, where trees have been stripped of their leaves in plots of 50 to 100 acres, state foresters say. "
  • Tug Hill Towns Plan to Battle Caterpillars if State Assigns Funds - Syracuse Post Standard, June 23, 1992. "Michael Yerdon, Redfield town supervisor, said towns in the Tug Hill area will lobby county and state legislators for state money to pay for insecticide spraying next year, he said."
  • Caterpillars Invade Trees of Redfield. The Creepy, Crawly Things Are Munching Their Way Through Birch and Sugar Maple Leavesas Gardeners Try to Save Their Plants and Trees - By Mary Jo Hill. (Syracuse) Post-Standard, June 17, 1992, p. B1. "Redfield and the town of Osceola in Lewis County have epidemic numbers of the insects crawling through their trees, according to a state Department of Environmental Conservation report. About 75,000 acres are expected to be defoliated by the caterpillars in 1992, according to the report."..."The last epidemic of the forest tent caterpillars in the Tug Hill area was approximately 30 years ago, said Robert Demeree, assistant regional forester for the DEC."
  • Pest Hits Sugar Bush: Caterpillars Chewing Up Lewis County - By John Golden, Watertown Daily Times, June 25, 1989, p. B1. "Mr. Davies said areas of Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties - generally, in the towns of Theresa, Philadelphia, Antwerp, Alexandria, Rossie and Hammond - have had a "mini-epidemic" of gypsy moths for three years. He said there is also a "spot epidemic" of gypsy moths south of Clayton."..."The last serious outbreak in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties occurred in 1977 and continued for about three years. DEC officials said there was a major outbreak in Northern New York in the early 1950s."

    Ohio

    Will worms threaten my sugar maples, oaks later this summer? - By Mike Klahr, Community Press (Cincinnati), May 25, 2006. "From all indications the forest tent caterpillar population is heading eastward from Trimble and Carroll counties into Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties."
  • Tent caterpillar outbreak more nuisance than problem - Cincinnati Enquirer - May 13, 2006. ""There's more of (the eastern tent variety) this year than there has been in quite a few years," Boggs says. Infestations are occurring in pockets around Greater Cincinnati, including Hyde Park, Northside and Fairfield."

    Pennsylvania

  • Caterpillars will be back to bug us next year - By David Singleton, Scranton Times-Tribune, July 29, 2006. "Of more immediate concern are the 39,000 acres of sugar maple, mostly in Wayne County, that were defoliated earlier in the season by forest tent caterpillars. Some of the trees, particularly those that are refoliating poorly, will probably not survive, Mr. Jackson said. “It could be a substantial amount of acreage,” he said. Sugar maple is a valuable hardwood, and Mr. Jackson conducted a pair of meetings this week with Wayne County forest landowners to advise them of the possible scenarios for the viability of their trees."
  • Mayor on hot seat over gypsy moths - By Nick DiUlio, Medford Central Record, June 16, 2006. " In 2006 the state of Pennsylvania will reimburse communities 25 percent of the cost of spraying for gypsy moths.
  • Homeowners should keep an eye out for, and combat destructive caterpillars - By Eric Long, Williamsport Sun-Gazette, June 16, 2006. "He [Robert Hansen, a regional extension forester based at the Penn State University Cooperative Extension office in Towanda] said the heaviest concentrations of Forest Tent caterpillars he’s seen are in the northeastern part of the state. ‘‘They can cause heavy defoliation,’’ he said. ‘‘About six or eight years ago, we had a large defoliation from Forest Tent caterpillars, then we had elm spanworm, both of them native insects. Then we had a wet, cold spring and in a lot of areas we had a fungus called anthracnose, which kills the new leaves trees are trying to put out. That hurt a lot of trees.’’
  • Forest tent caterpillars threaten trees in Wayne - Peter Wynne, (Honesdale) Weekly Almanac, June 1, 2006. "Landowners in Wayne and neighboring Lackawanna County are reporting the worms are defoliating their trees, sometimes extensively, said Jackson Gearhart of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry."..."”We were caught completely off guard [in 1982-1983],” Mr. Edwards said. “The state forestry people told us not to worry, that the worms would go away. But they didn’t. The caterpillars completely defoliated the sugar maples, and the trees all died. We lost millions and millions of board feet of hardwood lumber. Later, old-timers came by and told us that the same thing had happened in the 1940s and ‘50s."
  • Tent caterpillars are eating their way through region’s black cherry trees - By David Singleton, (Wilkes-Barre) Citizen's Voice, June 1, 2006. "The Bureau of Forestry anticipated a resurgence of the gypsy moth caterpillar. After three years without an aerial spraying program to combat the woodland pest, the agency this spring sprayed 82,000 acres of private and public land, most of it in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties." Same article appeared in the Scranton Times-Tribune as Caterpillars not making area friends

    Rhode Island

  • An infestation of insects - By Michelle J. Lee , Providence Journal, May 30, 2007. "The caterpillars were also seen in western parts of Coventry, near the villages of Greene and Hopkins Hollow, and sections of Scituate. Payton said it was not as bad as the portions of West Greenwich by Hazard and Plain roads. About 50 people called the DEM to report the problem."

    Vermont

  • 'Friendly flies' are nature's way of dealing with pest plague - By Madeline Bodin, Rutland Herald, June 19, 2006. "Hanson says the areas seeing the heaviest fly populations now can expect an end to the outbreak of forest tent caterpillars in the next year or two."
  • Flies invade Bennington County towns - By Patrick McArdle, Bennington Banner, June 14, 2006. "The winged insects seen swarming in Manchester, Shaftsbury and other Bennington County locations in recent days are a native species that responds to the population of forest tent caterpillars, according to Scott Pfister, chief of Forest Resource Protection."
  • Return of the flies - By Patrick McArdle, Bennington Banner, June 13, 2006.
  • What to do with caterpillars - Manchester Journal, June 2, 2006."Manchester Tree Warden Lee A. Krohn has this update on Forest Tent Caterpillars from the Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Council."
  • Birdbrains: Caterpillar-crazy cuckoos highlight the week - By Kent McFarland, Burlington Free Press, June 2, 2006.
  • Battling a Hungry Bug - Kristin Carlson, WCAX TV News, Waterbury, Vermont, June 1, 2006. "To fight back, the state just finished spraying an insecticide from the air. They covered over 5,400 acres and worked with 100 sugarmakers who paid three quarters of the cost, the government pays the rest. It's the second year trying to kill forest tent caterpillars. "Once the sugarbushes were sprayed we stopped about 90% of the defoliation that happened, so it was effective," says Pfister."
  • Forest tent caterpillars are threatening Vermont's maple and other trees this spring - Audio file, Vermont Public Radio, Colchester, May 23, 2006, Midday Report, Steve Delaney.
  • Caterpillars threaten maple trees - Rutland Herald, May 24, 2006. "Last year - the bugs, less than a half inch long, blueish in color, with a white, keyhole-shaped spot on their backs - defoliated 230,000 acres of Vermont's forests."
  • Voracious Vermin - By Matt Sutkoski, Burlington Free Press, May 23, 2006. "The last time the population peaked in Vermont was in 1982, when the bugs defoliated 322,000 acres."
  • Bugs chewing forests, rain delays spraying - By Matt Sutkoski, Burlington Free Press, May 23, 2006.
  • Rain delays war on caterpillars - By Dave Mance III, Bennington Banner, May 18, 2006. "To combat what is expected to be a disastrous forest tent caterpillar outbreak, sugarmakers in 60 Vermont towns will be aerial-spraying 5,400 acres of sugarbush this month."
  • Tent Caterpillars ... they're baaaak! - Manchester Journal, Friday, May 19, 2006.
  • Vt. cuts back on share of spraying - By Howard Weiss-Tisman, Brattleboro Reformer, April 11, 2006. "Vermont spent $174,000 last year; $87,000 through federal grants and $69,000 of state money. Sugarmakers paid $18,000 out of their pockets."
  • Sugar makers fret over damage by caterpillars - By Howard Weiss-Tisman, Brattleboro Reformer, March 10, 2006. "Last year, the state paid for half of the spraying. But officials are still waiting to hear whether state and federal money will be available." Barbara Burns, runs the spray program for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
  • 2005 Forest Tent Caterpillar Suppression Project - "In 2005 landowners in 7 counties and 14 towns in Vermont requested assistance from the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation in spraying their sugarbushes to protect tree foliage from defoliation by forest tent caterpillar. While most individual spray areas were small, the total area to be treated statewide was around 1,300 acres. The spraying was timed to occur in mid-May to early June, depending on weather conditions and when eggs would hatch. The material used was a biological insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki (B.t.k.). It is a bacterium that acts specifically on defoliating caterpillars. It is not a contact insecticide so needs to be swallowed to be effective. One reason for using this pesticide is that it is safe for use on food products as in the case of trees used for maple syrup production. It is also approved for used by organic farmers. Applied was a forumlation called Foray 48B at a rate of 1 quart per acre." Contact: Scott Pfister, Forest Resource Protection Chief, Dept. of Forests, Parks & Recreation, 103 South Main Street, 10 South Waterbury, VT 05671-0602. Work Phone: 802-241-3676, Cellular Phone: 802-324-1170, scott.pfister@state.vt.us. "Other areas damaged by the caterpillars were concentrated in the Taconic Range, White said, including Rupert, Dorset, Sandgate, Arlington, Shaftsbury and parts of Bennington."
  • 2005 Forest Health Highlights: Vermont - "Tree health and forest ecology has been affected by a major outbreak of the forest tent caterpillar. This native inset is in it's third year of high populations in Vermont. Defoliation of sugar maple, ash, oak and other hardwood species increased substantially in 2005, affecting 230,000 acres of forest and expanding northward."
  • Manchester targets caterpillars with plans for spraying - By Patrick G. Rheaume, Bennington Banner (VT), October 17, 2005.
  • Caterpillar damage may shift to northern Vt. next year - By Andrew McKeever, Times Argus, The (Montpelier-Barre, VT).
  • Forest Tent Caterpillars - Audio file, Charlie Nardozzi, Vermont Public Radio, August 3, 2005.
  • Tent caterpillars invade Manchester - Audio file, Steve Zind, Vermont Public Radio, July 12, 2005."Manchester Town Manager Peter Webster says tent caterpillars made a simple stroll down the sidewalk difficult."
  • In the Time of Caterpillars (Happy 25th Anniversary) - By Philip Baruth, Vermont Public Radio, July 5, 2005.
  • Caterpillars wreaked havoc on hardwoods - By Brent Curtis, Rutland Herald (VT), June 26, 2005. "For the first time, the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation offered to spray 19 stands of trees owned by maple sugarmakers."
  • Manchester plans to sudy own tent caterpillar battle - Rutland Herald, June 30, 2005. "Town Manager Peter Webster wants to convene a public meeting in early autumn to review the pros and cons of an aerial spraying campaign after wide swathes of trees were left brown and defoliated by the insects this spring."

    Wisconsin (2001-2004)

  • Creepie Crawlies - The Capital Times (Madison, WI), March 20, 2004 p10A . "Defoliation from the caterpillars occurred over more than 5 million acres of forest, DNR scientists say, with aspen and birch trees hardest hit."
  • Caterpillar Invasion May be Over - 1.4 minute audioclip, Wisconsin Public Radio, 5/15/02
  • Forest Tent Caterpillars Set for Invasion - Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 6, 2002 p4A. "We had a couple hundred calls within a couple days," said Tom Lovlien, forest administrator for the Wausau and Marathon County Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department.
  • Caterpillar Invasion May Get Bigger. They Overran Parts of Wisconsin Last Year, and the Mild Winter May Mean More of Them This Year - Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), May 6, 2002 pB1.
  • Caterpillars Invade Northern Wisconsin: Residents Complain That the Insects Are All Over Their Homes and Driveways - Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) June 11, 2001.
  • YUCK! Creepy - By Jo Sandin. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 9, 2001. ""My grandfather has about 500 acres of aspen, and there isn't a leaf left," Forslund said."

    Southeast

  • MRLS: Eastern and Forest Tent Caterpillars Currently Feeding - University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, April 6, 2007 (Horse.com).
  • County fights back against gypsy moths: Roanoke County officials pledge to spray affected areas to combat the spreading devastation - By John Cramer, Roanoke Times, June 23, 2006. The county has hired a contractor to coordinate the effort to combat the moth. "Gypsy moths have devastated millions of acres across the eastern United States, causing a range of environmental and economic woes, including increased wildfire risk, soil erosion, damage to wildlife and fish habitats, and lowered property values."
  • Roanoke, Craig and Giles counties face quarantine: The infestation is getting worse particularly on Bent and Poor mountains, officials say - By John Cramer, Roanoke Times, June 22, 2006. "Roanoke, Craig and Giles counties likely will be added to Virginia's gypsy moth quarantine zone in September as the leaf-eating insect continues to spread across the state."
  • Hungry 'Bag Worms Find Paradise: They Flourish with Weather Pattern - By Bob Driehaus, Kentucky Post (Covington, KY), April 29, 2006 pA1. "Joe Boggs, a horticulture expert and Ohio State University extension agent in Hamilton County, said the signs are pointing toward a bumper crop of forest tent caterpillars, though nothing is certain."
  • At Least They're Quieter - By Troy Lyle, The Kentucky Post (Covington, KY), May 21, 2005 pK1
  • Pest makes a snack out of shade - by Lynne Langley, Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), May 22, 2003 pA1.
  • Turning Over a New Leaf; Caterpillars Inch into Sight. There's Been an Explosion in the Number of Malacosoma Disstria Larvae - By Mark Zaloudek, Sarasota Herald Tribune, March 6, 1997, p. 1.

    West

  • MV aims to halt caterpillar outbreaks - By Katie Klingsporn, Telluride Daily Planet, August 16, 2006. "This was the fourth consecutive year that an infestation of the caterpillars has erupted in the town, and the worst infestation in history that anyone could recall. Although the municipality ended up spraying a biological insecticide on the area, the action was considered a little too late - the caterpillars had already wreaked substantial damage on groves of aspens."
  • Caterpillars, Conifers Killing Aspens In Colorado - CBS4, Denver, July 25, 2006.
  • Nasty Neighbors: Tent Caterpillars Trash Mountain Village Landscape - By David Frey, New West Network, June 19, 2006. "...after four straight years of infesting aspen trees and leaving them bare, entomologists worried the damage could kill the trees....So local officials called in the big guns. They brought in a spray plane that doused the area with bacteria that entomologists said would paralyze the tiny caterpillar intestines but leave the humans unharmed."
  • Forest attacked by bugs; Caterpillars defoliating Sacramento Ranger District - Alamogordo Daily News, June 20, 2006.
  • Invasion of aspen-leaf snatchers - By Nancy Lofholm, Denver Post, June 19, 2006. "Millions of Western tent caterpillars took over swathes of the village for the fourth year in a row."
  • Mountain Villagers Surprised By Caterpillar Pesticide Sprayed From Above: Infestation May Be the Result of Climate Change - By Alec Magnet, Telluride Watch, June 9, 2006.
  • When Tent Caterpillars Come A-Crawling - By Ann Lovejoy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA), (May 1, 2003), p. E6. "Because Bt dissipates so quickly, it won't persist to be a problem for later-appearing caterpillars we do want to encourage, such as painted ladies and other handsome butterflies."

    Canada

  • Bug invasion rolls, flies, creeps across province - CBC News, Saskatchewan, June 15, 2006.
  • They’re back! Caterpillars make surprise appearance - By Bill Bradley, Northern Life (Sudbury, Ontario), June 9, 2006. "Azilda especially has been hard hit this year by tent and gypsy moth caterpillars, even parts of the urban core such as New Sudbury are heavily infested,” said Cossette."
  • Mississauga's Gypsy Moth Aerial Spray Program Completed - Mississauga City Hall, May 31, 2006."During each spray, the Btk application rate was 4 litres per hectare which is approximately equivalent to the volume of one jug of windshield washer fluid spread over two football fields," said Gypsy Moth Project Lead and Forestry Manager Tony Fleischmann." See also Pest Management.
  • Aerial Spraying of Forest Tent Caterpillars Allowed by Manitoba Conservation in Whiteshell - May 11, 2001. "Manitoba Conservation has issued a permit to the Whiteshell Cottagers Association for limited aerial spraying of the biological agent Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt.) to control forest tent caterpillars."
  • Forest Tent Caterpillars - by Ardon Shillinglaw, June 2001 Newsletter
  • The forest tent caterpillar is known in French as Livrée des forêts. See La Livrée des forêts , clip from a 1956 video, in French, from L'Office national du film du Canada (ONF).
  • Look out! Forest tent caterpillars are on the march, ministry warns. - By H. Fred Dale, Toronto Star, May 27, 1990, p,. E4.
  • Peak year will have tent caterpillars hitting cottage country by millions - By Darcy Henton, Toronto Star, May 19, 1989."Some property owners in Huntsville, Port Sydney, Midhurst and Simcoe County are considering paying to have their lots sprayed. Last year, several Muskoka resorts began spraying when news of the outbreak prompted some guests to cancel."

    Who to Contact, What to do (in New York)

    Town, County and State Government

  • Cayuga County Elected Officials - Includes contact information for Cayuga County Legislators, and town boards in Niles & Sempronius. Steven E. Cuddeback represents District #9: Summerhill, Sempronius, Moravia, Niles in the Cayuga County Legislature. Cuddeback can be contacted at 315-784-5471 or ccdistrict09@cayugacounty.us.
  • Cortland County Legislature
  • Onondaga County Legislature
  • Town of Lafayette Meeting Minutes - Lafayette, in Onondaga County, New York, has experienced serious outbreaks of forest tent caterpillars. The Town Board Minutes are a useful resource for other communities undergoing similar outbreaks. They formed an Environmental & Conservation Advisory Board. See in particular, the following meeting minutes: January 10, 2005, January 24, 2005, February 14, 2005, February 28, 2005, March 14, 2005, March 28, 2005, April 25, 2005, May 9, 2005, June 13, 2005, July 11, 2005, August 8, 2005, October 24, 2005, November 14, 2005,

    New York State

  • Cornell Cooperative Extension - Has offices in all New York State Counties including: Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga, Lewis, Greene. They also have an Agroforestry Resource Center which has information on the Leaf Eating Caterpillars with names of Aerial Pesticide Applicators Registered with NYDEC.
    New York Forest Owner's Association
    New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
    DEC Regional Offices Phone and Address Information
    DEC Commissioner Advised Property Owners to Watch for Spring Caterpillar Pests - 24 May 2007
    Region 7 State Forest Contacts: Oswego, Cayuga, Onondaga, Madison, Tompkins, Cortland, Chenango, Tioga and Broome counties (315) 426-7400
    Dave Sinclair - Regional Forester in charge of both Cortland and Sherburne forestry staff, Cortland Sub-Office, 1285 Fisher Avenue, Cortland, NY 13045-1090, 607-753-3095, dmsincla@gw.dec.state.ny.us
    Robert Slavicek - Supervising Forester, Sherburne (607-674-4036)
    Richard Pancoe - Supervising Forester, Cortland, 607-753-3095, extension 217
    Jerry Carlson - Chief of Forest Health and Protection, NYDEC, 625 Broadway. Albany, NY 12233 ((518-402-9419, jacarlso@gw.dec.State.ny.us)
    Robert Davies - Director, Lands & Forests, NYSDEC, 625 Broadway. Albany, NY 12233 (518-402-9405)

    Federal

  • USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area - The Durham Field Office located in Durham, New Hampshire oversees New York and New England. See the Forest Health Protection Staff Directory and the Durham Staff Directory. See also Forest Health Protection information.

    Universities

  • Cornell University Entomology Department
  • SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

    Associations & Organizations

  • Sylvia Lake Association Board of Directors - "Sylvia Lake Association Board of Directors met on Thursday, April 6, 2006, to discuss the health of the lake, forest and watershed areas. After much deliberation, they have concluded that we need to aerial spray for a third year. Where we have sprayed, over the past two springs, does show a significant, visible difference from the surrounding area that did not receive spraying. The caterpillars are defying all known patterns and seem to be in an unusual cycle in this area. There are significant signs of caterpillar activity. Although we may not be hit as hard as other parts of St. Lawrence County, it is important to protect our fragile and stressed trees from this continuous assault. Protecting the trees that are left will protect the watershed." See The Caterpillar Diaries '06. The cost, according to Notes from the March 13th meeting was roughly 10.00-$15.00 per acre paid by 131 property owners. See also Letter from Steve VanderMark, Senior Resource Educator for the Cornell Cooperative Extension, to Fowler Town Council in which he describes a "public educational presentation day on the issue by a panel of State and University forest experts" held on April, 3, 2004, "to inform locatl stakeholders about the infestation." There is an agenda for the meeting. Presenters were Professor Doug Allen, SUNY ESF; Jerry Carlson, NYS D.E.C. Forest Health Specialist; Tom Hall, State of Pennsylvania Forest Health Specialist; and Thomas Beschle, NYS D.E.C. Regional Pesticides Specialist.
  • Finger Lakes Land Trust - Their Stewardship Ecologist, a volunteer position, is Mark Whitmore, an entomologist. (202 East Court Street, Ithaca, NY 14850, 607-275-9487).
  • Wayne-Lackawanna Forest Landowners Association (Pennsylvania) - Their June 2006 newsletter Forest Landowner #3/2 has Forest Tent Caterpillar Field Reports with detailed information about the infestation covering dates of hatches, areas impacted, degree of defoliation, and caterpillar mortality. "WLFLA is planning two special meetings in late July (2006) on the forest tent caterpillar....Dates and places should be announced soon, but we're hoping to have a meeting July 26 in the Manchester Township area, which would be convenient for members from northern Wayne, and July 27 in the Hamlin area, which should be good for southern Wayne and Lackawanna County members. These are also the areas that have been hit hard by the worms. The meetings will have two principal aims: to get out information to members and the public about the forest tent caterpillar and to begin planning for next spring, when aerial spraying of the affected area may be urgently needed. We're planning to bring in experts on the forest tent caterpillar and its control, so do try to attend. What you learn may save your forest." (Contact them at info@wlfla.org)
  • Society of American Foresters

    Treatment & Controls

  • Pesticide Application Management - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
  • Aerial Pesticide Applicators - Registered with NYSDEC - Jeff Duflo did the BT spraying for the Sylvia Lake Association. (Duflo Spray Chemical Inc., 8369 State Route 812, Lowville NY 13367 315-376-2155)
  • Caterpillar Spraying Program - Potsdam, New York
  • Tent Caterpillars: What Can I Do? - Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Lewis County
  • Unintended Consequences and the Great Army Worm Infestation - Ellen Sandbeck, PlanetSave, June 1, 2006. "Then true environmental disaster struck. Someone tried spraying the caterpillars with a solution of Dawn Dish Liquid and water, and the caterpillars died."
  • Always in Season: Cuckoos Arrive: More Proof of Summer - By By Mike Jacobs, Grand Forks Herald (North Dakota), June 11, 2006.
  • Q: Birds that eat forest tent caterpillars - Google Answers. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo "feeds almost exclusively on tent caterpillars."
  • Caterpillars are a savory draw for cuckoos - By Michael J. Caduto, Times Argus, (Montpelier-Barre, VT), July 10, 2005.
  • EPA Pesticide Tolerance Reassessment & Reregistration - Provides information on Bacillus thuringiensis. There is an abridged version and a long version.
  • National Pesticide Information Retrieval System - Look up Thuricide, Dipel, Deliver, MVP, Biotrol Thuricide, Javelin, Biobit, BioWorm Killer, Foray 48B (Abbott Labs) or Conserve SC
  • National Pesticide Information Center - Has a General Factsheet and a Technical Factsheet on Bacillus thuringiensis. See also Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki strain M-200 (006452) Fact Sheet and Bacillus Thuringiensis Subspecies Kurstaki CryIA(c)...
  • Bt microbial insecticide - Minnesota DNR
  • Friendly fly - Forest tent caterpillar parasite (Sarcophaga aldrichi) - Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
  • Green Harvest: Bacillus thuringiensis - Bt is a "highly effective and selective against most species of caterpillars. This biological control is a bacterial stomach poison for all caterpillars, which is mixed with water and sprayed onto foliage. It must be ingested by the actively feeding caterpillar, which dies 3-5 days later. It is totally safe to beneficial insects, bees and mammals. Bt is broken down by sunlight within a few days; so repeated applications may be necessary."
  • Massachusetts Forest Resource Fact Sheet Fiscal Year 2006 (pdf) - James DiMaio, State Forester, 617-626-1250. james.dimaio@state.ma.us "Thousands of parasitic flies were released in a joint biological control project to combat the winter moth, an exotic insect which is defoliating hardwoods in eastern Massachusetts. Project partners include the University of Mass., the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, USDA-APHIS, and the USDAForest Service. The parasite is expected to control the outbreak within four to six years." See also Moths munch on Garden City by Dan Atkinson, Newton Tab, June 14, 2006. "The state is breeding a parasitic fly, Cyzenis Albicans, which attacks and eats the moth, Welch said. The fly has been used to reduce winter moth populations in Nova Scotia with a lot of success, but Massachusetts won’t have enough flies to combat the moths for another few years, he said. Breeding is expensive and time-consuming, and the state has to be careful when introducing a new species to the ecosystem."
  • Entomopathic fungi
  • Tachinid parasitoid
  • Nuclear Polyhedrus Virus (NPV) - Malacosoma disstria Nucleopolyhedrovirus
  • Furia gastropachae - fungal pathogen of the forest tent caterpillar (entomopathogenic fungus)
  • Furia crustosa
  • Microinjection

    History: Articles About Earlier Outbreaks

  • 'Superflies' Help Protect Forests but Create a Furor in Maine - New York Times, July 21, 1983. p. C14. "But the incessant buzzing and ticklish crawling of the non-biting bugs - oversize look-alikes of the housefly and identified as Sarcophaga aldrichi - now commonly send citizens, as well as the deer and moose that fill the forest, scampering for cover."
  • Insect Ravages Called Worst in 2 Decades - New York Times, July 31, 1977. p. 20.
  • Safe Biological Pesticide Found For Killing Leaf-Eating Insects [Bacillus Thuringiensis] - By John C. Devlin, New York Times, April 12, 1963. p. 1. "The forest tent caterpillar, which eats oak and maple leaves, almost totally defoliated trees in a 55-square mile area of one Indiana county in six weeks of April and May..."
  • 140,000 Acres Sprayed: State Reports on its Program to Control Woodland Pests - New York Times, August 11, 1953, p. 19. "The State Conservation Department announced today the completion of aerial spraying of more than 140,000 acres of woodland in its annual effort to combat the destructive work of forest tent caterpillars and gypsy moths."
  • States Opens Caterpillar Fight - New York Times, April 30, 1953. p. 42. ""Commisioner Perry B. Duryea said that the caterpillar had defoliated trees ina 3,500,000-acre area of Northern and Eastern New York last year."
  • Caterpillars Eat Ontario: Northern Part of Province Unable to Cope With Scourge of Hungry Invaders - New York Times, June 28, 1936. p. E10. ""Clover and hay fields have been swept bare in some districts. Cows near Sudbury, busy brushing off clinging caterpillars and reluctant to eat the infested grass, give only half the usual quantity of milk."..."The caterpillars like to travel on warm rails, in preference to railroad ties, as they move from woods to woods. Sometimes they are four to six inches deep on the rails."
  • Railroad Wars on Caterpillars that Delay Trains: The Long Island Road Found It No Joke to Exterminate the Thousands of Little Insects That Swarmed on the Rails and Stalled Trains, but Finally Succeeded. New York Times, July 6, 1913. p. SM12.
  • "Caterpillars a Tree Pest: Severe Injury on Long Island Report to State Entomologist" - New York Times, June 3, 1913. p. 4.
  • The Forest Tent-Caterpillar - Bulletin No. 159, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, October, 1899. "The forest tent-caterpillars have worked to some extent in our forests every year but usually their numbers have been so small and their damage so slight that they have passed unnoticed. This year, however, they were present in alarming abundance in many sections of the state, especially along the western, northern and eastern slopes of the Adirondacks, the valley of the upper Hudson, the Mohawk Valley, the Catskill region, in the southern part of Onondaga and Madison counties, throughout Cortland, Chenango and Otsego counties, and in the upper Genesee Valley. They were also present in noticeable numbers in all counties of the State except perhaps a few in the extreme West."
  • The 'Worms' of 1770 - Dick Hoefnagel. Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College, told of "multitudes of a Kind of Brownish Streaked Worm..." These were probably army worms (Cirphis unipunctata).

    Research

    [listed in no particular order and not following any particular citation style - inexcusable for a librarian!]
  • Google Scholar - An excellent resource for locating citations for scholarly articles. Try these searches : "Malacosoma disstria Hubner", "Malacosoma disstria Hubner" control
  • PubMed - Another valuable resource for locating scholarly articles. Search for Malacosoma disstria Hubner.
  • Tent Caterpillars (1995) - Book by Terrence D. Fitzgerald (Cornell Series in Arthropod Biology). Used copies are $4.50 and up at Amazon.com. To find out if a library near you owns the book do the following search in Google : "find in a library" "tent caterpillars" "Terrence D Fitzgerald". See also his website: Social Caterpillars, which has updated information on the Forest Tent Caterpillar . Fitzgerald is a Professor of Biological Science at the State University of New York at Cortland.
  • Extreme Weather Heralds Caterpillar Outbreaks - Earthwatch Institute, Maynard, MA, November 17, 2005.
  • Can Global Warming Cause Caterpillar Outbreaks? - By John Roach, National Geographic News, November 16, 2005. "The biologists found that parasitism, the greatest control for insect pests such as caterpillars, decreases as climate variability increases." Dyer and his colleagues report their finding in the November 29, 2005 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Climatic unpredictability and parasitism of caterpillars: implications of global warming." - J.O. Stireman III, L.A. Dyer, D.H. Janzen, M.S. Singer, J.T. Lill, R.J. Marquis, R.E. Ricklefs, G.L. Gentry, W. Hallwachs, P.D. Coley, J.A. Barone, H.F. Greeney, H. Connahs, P. Barbosa, H.C. Morais, and I.R. Diniz. PNAS, 102 (48): 17384-17383, November 29, 2005.
  • Tent Caterpillars And Their Parasites: Most Abundant Animals In The Boreal Forest? - Networks of Centres of Excellence, Edmonton, March 12, 2002. "What we determined," said Roland, "is that for the parasites and the viruses to be most effective, the size of the forest stand should be a minimum of about 100 hectares. Smaller forest stands served as a caterpillar refuge because of less effective natural enemies-helping to extend the length of the infestation by several years."
  • Gross, H.L. 1991. Dieback and growth loss of sugar maple associated with defoliation by the forest tent caterpillar. For. Chron. 67:33^2.
  • Influence of Edaphic Factors on Sugar Maple Nutrition and Health on the Allegheny Plateau - S W Bailey, S B Horsley, R P Long, R A Hallett. Soil Science Society of America Journal. Madison: Jan/Feb 2004.Vol.68, Iss. 1; pg. 243, 10 pgs.
  • Concentration-response and temperature-related susceptibility of the forest tent caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) to the entomopathogenic fungus Furia gastropachae. M.J. Filotas, J.D. Vandenberg and A.E. Hajek, Biological Control, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 25 May 2006.
  • The dynamics of forest tent caterpillar outbreaks in Québec, Canada - Barry J. Cooke and François Lorenzetti, Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 226, Issues 1-3, 1 May 2006, Pages 110-121.
  • A Forest Tent Caterpiller Outbreak in the Mississippi Delta: Host Preference and Growth Effect (1995) - By Theodor D. Leininger, and J. D. Solomon.
  • Forest Tent Caterpillar in the Upper Midwest (2001) - By Steven Katovich and Jim Hanson.
  • Plant-Insect Interactions in Fragmented Landscapes - By Teja Tscharntke and Roland Brandl, Annual Review of Entomology; 2004, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p405-430. "Roland & Taylor showed that forest fragmentaion affects survival of four tachinid flies and thus parasitism of forest tent caterpillars (Malacosoma disstria). Outbreaks of this forest pest lasted longer in fragmented forests than in continuous forests."
  • Nucleopolyhedroviruses of forest and western tent caterpillars: cross-infectivity and evidence for activation of latent virus in high density field populations - Cooper, D., Cory, J.S. Theilman, D. and J.H. Myers. 2002. Ecological Entomology 41-50.
  • Large-scale forest fragmentation increases the duration of tent caterpillar outbreak - By Jens Roland, Oecologia, February 1993, Volume 93, Number 1, Pages: 25 - 30. "Increased clearing and fragmentation of boreal forests, by agriculture and forestry, may be exacerbating outbreaks of this forest defoliator."
  • Forest Health: A Technical Paper for a Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Timber Harvesting and Forest Management in Minnesota. (1992) - 224 pages. The References section (p. 55-108) contains a number of resources on Forest Tent Caterpillars. See pp. 106-111 for specific information on the FTC.
  • CA Cobbold, MA Lewis, F Lutscher and J Roland How parasitism affects critical patch-size in a host-parasitoid model: application to the forest tent caterpillar - Theoretical Population Biology 67 (2005): 109-125. "Forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) outbreaks last longer and are more frequent in forests fragmented by agricultural clearings (Roland, 1993)."
  • Concentration-response and temperature-related susceptibility of the forest tent caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) to the entomopathogenic fungus Furia gastropachae (Zygomycetes: Entomophthorales) - By M.J. Filotas, J.D. Vandenberg and A.E. Hajek, Biological Control, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 25 May 2006. "The virulence of this fungus suggests that it may be a good candidate for biological control of the forest tent caterpillar." Filotas and Hajek are members of the Department of Entomology at Cornell. [doi: 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2006.05.006]
  • What is the distance that a forest tent caterpillar can travel in the caterpillar stage and later in the moth stage? - Google Answers, 22 Mar 2006.
  • Fitzgerald, T. D. and F. X. Webster. 1993. Identification and behavioral assays of the trail pheromone of the forest tent caterpillar Malacosoma disstria Hubner (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae). Can. J. Zool. 71:1511-1515.
  • Fitzgerald, T. D. and Costa, J. T. 1986. Trail-based communication and foraging behavior of young colonies of the forest tent caterpillar Malacosoma disstria Hubn. (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 79: 999-1007.
  • Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome - "Research has shown that the Eastern Tent Caterpillars have a significant role in this syndrome." See the University of Kentucky's information on Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome. "UK research has strongly linked the caterpillars with outbreaks of MRLS, which can cause late-term abortions, early-term fetal losses and weak foals. During the 2001-2002 season, when MRLS hit central Kentucky particularly hard, an estimated 30 percent of the 2002 Thoroughbred foal crop was lost and the state suffered an economic cost of approximately $336 million due to losses suffered by all horse breeds." See also The Biology of the Tent Caterpillar As It Relates to Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome by T. D. Fitzgerald, Session 7, The Black Cherry Tree/Eastern Tent Caterpillar/ Eastern Tent Caterpillar Frass System, Proceedings of the First Workshop on Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome, Lexington, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, 2002. The forest tent caterpillar "has thus far not been implicated in any naturally occurring instance of MRLS." (p.2)
  • Researchers Investigate Air Pollution's Effects on Northern Trees - The Forestry Source , 2002. "In the rings with increased levels of ozone, forest tent caterpillars grew larger than in the reference areas."
  • Macrogeographic clines in fecundity, reproductive allocation, and offspring size of the forest tent caterpillar Malacosoma disstria - By Parry D.; Goyer R.A.; Lenhard G.J., Ecological Entomology, Volume 26, Number 3, August 2001, pp. 281-291(11).
  • Parry, D. 1995. Larval and pupal parasitism of the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria Hübner (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), in Alberta, Canada. Can. Ent. 127: 877-893.
  • National Capacity in Forestry Research - A 162 page report compiled by Committee on National Capacity in Forestry Research, National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. This report documents the steady loss of funding for forestry research. See USDA Forest Service News Release, July 22, 2002.
  • Are the "seeds" of spatial variation in cyclic dynamics apparent in spatially-replicatd short time-series? An example from the forest tent caterpillar By Jens Roland, Annales Zoologici Fennici, 42: 397-407. (spatial synchrony)
  • Visser M.E. and Holleman L.J. Warmer springs disrupt the synchrony of oak and winter moth phenology, [Pubmed citation] Proc Biol Sci. 2001 Feb 7;268(1464):289-94.
    Last updated 2 January 2008
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