Tent caterpillars in Catskills

Last weekend while driving on Rt 28 I noticed that the mountains looked a little brown in some places. As I got closer I saw that on the southern exposures mostly, that in many places the leaves had been eaten by caterpillars, probably gypsy moth caterpillars. From there I went up Rt 214 to Diamond Notch and went fishing. The damage wasn't as bad there, but there was caterpillars everywhere and some of the maples were missing some leaves. When I got back from fishing there was caterpillar droppings all over my truck. I did notice that in April there was an abnormally large amount of tent caterpillars in the area.

Yeah Mink they are really bad this year. I spent last weekend on Private land up in Diamond Notch and on some trees I counted 50 of them. Some of the smaller hardwoods are completely denuded, and they just love those Cherry trees. I counted about a hundred on one 60 foot cherry, they were all marching toward the top.
Look for widespread damage when we near the end of the summer and thru the fall.
Damn foriegners!
Tom

I'm not entomologist (I'm not even sure if I spelled that correctly) but my understanding is that major tent caterpillars infestations occur every 8 - 10 years. The populations then crashes due to predation by parisitic wasps and viral diseases. At the peak of the outbreak you'll also see many more black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos, which are one of the few birds that can actually eat the things. Their stomach lining has evolved in such a way that it protects them from the irritation caused by the caterpillar's hairs.

THey sure do some damage. Usually if they are bad enough the trees end up dying. There are a few places in the NJ Highlands and Kittattiny's where the ridge tops are covered with dead trees. Not good for the forest because then the grass takes over and that brings the ticks.

Are they also known as Gypsy moth caterpillars?

I've removed their tented nests from several of my trees this year, none bothered them last year. They seem to like maples just fine.

Yup, I noticed some of them during our Devil's Path hike...

We used to get them here in NJ really bad when I was growing up.. My father and I would torch them and they would light up like if they were doused in starter fluid. Their "tents" were very flamable.. Much like most of our "tents"

Jay

gypsy moths/ tent caterpillars

Gypsy moths and tent caterpillars are two different creatures. If I am remembering right, the gypsy moths are cyclical and can do a tremendous amount of damage when there is a heavy infestation. They seem to like oak trees.
Tent caterpillars are around every year and like crabapple trees and cherry trees.
The gypsy moths were brought here as some sort of strange money making scheme to make silk and it didn't work out, but they got loose,etc.
They've both been around this area as long as I can remember and the trees seem to survive.

A tent caterpillar article from a Syracuse newspaper:

http://syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1087806925286581.xml

Axle grease?

I wonder if you could use a heavy grease to coat the lower part of the tree-trunks? They seem to be worse in Rockingham county this year than last but nothing like NY state. We're having more of a problem with the gypsies that are indeed enjoying some of my oaks. Would axle grease bother the trees?

I doubt axle grease will work. They make there nests in the trees. They dont actually climb up the trees. I remember the last time we had an outbreak of them we had planes fly over spreading some kind of spray that kills them. I think they only do that when they are really bad like in the early 90's

Massachussetts has been hit hard too......

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_sc/caterpillar_crescendo

Rotten things have eaten all my blueberries too

ick - ick and more ick!

i'm from upper michigan & many yrs ago a bunch of use went camping . we found this "nice private spot" & got all set up. we were in our tent & all of a sudden started hearing these things dropping on the roof. my sis & her husband who were next to us had just sat down outside at the table to eat. at almost the same time we all just freaked. these gross frelling caterpillers were dropping on us in droves! i'm not kidding it was like out of a horror movie. on the tent, the food, our heads.... you never saw 4 people pack up everything so fast & get out of there! yuck i hate them. luckily we were able to move to another area far away from them, but they gave me the ebbie jeebies for months!
seen a few up towards the daks too, they are really devastating. hope they don't get any worse.