[NAFEX] bagging apples & winter moth
Betty Mayfield
bmayfield at opusnet.com
Mon Jun 2 14:11:24 EDT 2008
Diane,
Tried a Google search on winter moth and came up with Operophtera
brumata with a description like yours. A University of Massachusetts
page said it had spread from eastern Canada to western, as you said,
and then down to Washington, Oregon and New England.
But it is definitely not what I had, which local newspapers referred
to as a tent caterpillar outbreak. However, as I said, my "tents"
were like the fall webworm, while the heavy outbreak of adult moths
noted earlier definitely resembled the eastern tent caterpillar.
One other oddity - both the winter moth and fall webworm adults are
described as being attracted to lights, but not the adult of the
eastern tent caterpillar.
I definitely remember the "thump, thump, thump" of heavy moth bodies
hitting the windows at night when the lights were on. Daylight
confirmed that the moths were brown and thick-bodied, but the fall
webworm moth is described as pure white.
Betty Mayfield
Northwest Oregon
At 08:42 PM 6/1/2008, Diane wrote:
>On 1-Jun-08, Betty Mayfield wrote:
>
> > During my recent Google search on caterpillars, I found the
> > description of the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosome disstria)
> > similar to your description.
>
>
>I remember a really bad outbreak of tent caterpillars about 1944.
>There has not been an equivalent infestation since. Everything was
>covered with them, and the neighbours all along the street were
>scooping them into containers - the women using tablespoons so they
>wouldn't have to touch them, and the kids just using fingers. Then
>the boxes of them were tossed into our woodstoves. Unfortunately,
>ours was burning when my mother tossed them in, and when she went to
>make dinner, there were caterpillars crawling all over the stove.
>
>No, this winter moth is not a local insect. It is European, but had
>been in Nova Scotia (on the Atlantic coast of Canada) before arriving
>on the Pacific coast, probably on some nursery stock, though it
>wouldn't have been on fruit trees as they have to be fumigated before
>being sent out West. Of course, someone might have done an illegal
>private importation.
>
>It was devastating because it was new and there were no predators
>here until they were imported after a number of years of total
>defoliation of all deciduous trees. The leafless trees made it seem as
>though winter went on for a very long time.
>
>Diane Whitehead
>Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
>maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
>mild rainy winters, mild dry summers
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>nafex mailing list
>nafex at lists.ibiblio.org
>
>Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
>This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
>Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!
>
>**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
>Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
>No exceptions.
>----
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can
>be used to change other email options):
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>
>File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
>TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
>Please do not send binary files.
>Use plain text ONLY in emails!
>
>NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/
More information about the nafex
mailing list