Invasion of the Gypsy Moths
By Joe Kennedy joe.kennedy@roanoke.com 981-3256
BENT MOUNTAIN — Mother Nature pulled another fast one on Darryl Moore Friday morning.
For the second day in a row, she wrapped a shroud of fog around the woods in the higher elevations of Bent and Poor mountains, thwarting his effort to show me the spectacle of the season — huge swaths of land marked by naked trees bereft of their leafy garb.
The cause of the mass defilement? The voracious caterpillars that turn into gypsy moths.
When Moore built his house and moved to his acreage on Poor Mountain a few years ago, he had only a vague notion of what the moths were and could do.
This year, even on a drizzly, foggy morning, the close-up sight of shorn oaks, clipped mountain laurels and suffering pines makes an impression.
But that’s nothing compared with the sight of the caterpillars themselves. It may be politically incorrect to say, but they are ugly creatures, second only in homeliness to the scat they leave as a result of their dining.
“They have big turds,” Moore said, standing outside his Jeep on the thickly wooded lane through the woods behind his house.
“It looks like somebody spread out peppercorns.”
Nowhere to run
In dry weather, Moore, his wife, Ursula, and their daughter, Valerie, can sit on the porch of their dream home and listen to the soft pitter-patter of droppings falling onto the ground, their vehicles and their patio furniture.
When the reproduction process reaches its egg mass stage, the family may develop allergies or eye irritation.
“My eyes weren’t itching until I read that,” Moore said.
His dream house, most of which he built himself over a two-year span, sits at an elevation of nearly 3,500 feet. But nobody should feel exempt from the threat.
The caterpillars eat 475 types of foliage, with oak leaves being their favorite fare. In some states, whole neighborhoods have been denuded.
Collateral damage
For Moore, a secondary effect of the stripped trees on land next to his has been the ruination of the acorn crop. That has led to relocation by deer, and deer hunting is a big reason why he built his house there.
It’s too soon to tell how the early-stage degradation on his property will affect his sightings of scarlet tanagers, towhees and great horned owls, coyotes, bobcats and bear.
He doesn’t begin to claim the title of most-affected resident. Some neighbors have woods that are as bare as they used to be in February.
Trees can die from this. Dead trees make for a potent fire hazard.
The Moores are looking into traps that give off the pheromone scent the female gypsy moths emit to attract males when they are ready to mate.
Buying enough traps for an acre will cost $80, Moore said. He and his wife own 17 acres.
Late last year more than 3,000 acres in Roanoke County and 3,000 more in Montgomery County were reported as gypsy moth-infested.
Roanoke, Craig and Giles counties were added to the state’s quarantine area in September.
Across the United States, the moths have defoliated millions of acres, primarily in the East and Midwest.
The Associated Press has reported that the damage amounted to 700,000 acres in Pennsylvania last year and could be worse this year.
This year’s caterpillars, or larvae, may enter the cocooning phase within a week. After about two more weeks, the moths will appear and mate, and the females will produce the egg masses from which caterpillars will emerge next spring.
Some of their neighbors paid for aerial spraying this year, but the Moores did not.
“I’m one of the ones that stood back and said, ‘This isn’t going to happen to me,’ ” Darryl Moore said.
The damage isn’t readily visible from the porch of his house. But watch where you sit on the patio.
(c) 2007 Roanoke Times & World News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.