SWVA Forests Threatened by Caterpillars
No matter what you call them, they need to be controlled
The Mount Rogers National Outdoor Recreation Area is an southern Appalachian region of special importance for me. We lived not so far away in Wytheville (VA) for a dozen years. I took classes of biology students every spring to the Mt Rogers Naturalist Rally, and spent a lot of personal time picking blueberries and backpacking in the Grayson-Highlands part of the Jefferson National Forest.
And so it got my attention in Cardinal News just recently to learn that the area would be sprayed this month from planes flying over those familiar mountainsides. Specifically, the article said that the slopes near Konnarock and Whitetop will be treated to suppress the growing and hungry population of "Spongy Moths."
National Forest System lands to be treated in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest’s Mount Rogers National Recreation Area include 3,219 acres at Konnarock in Grayson County and 6,884 acres at Whitetop Mountain in Smyth County, according to a news release.
What’s In A Name if the Appetites Are the Same?
I had never even heard of this species! They must have sprung up quickly and spread rapidly while I wasn't looking. I was stunned. How could I have not known about an insect pest this significant in its impact?
But then I realized I had once hiked for hours under a forest canopy in the Catskills that rained down Spongy Moth poop from caterpillars overhead—only it was known then as the "Gypsy Moth" which you might have heard of.
They are not newcomers. This moth species has thrived in the US since being imported intentionally more than 150 years ago from Asia.
The name was changed in 2022 (same for the Gypsy Ant) to remove a derogatory name for the Romani people.
Just How Destructive Are They Anyway?
But by any other name, this caterpillar can be devastating.
"Aerial surveys mapped spongy moth defoliation in the Northeast and Midwest with 2.5 million acres defoliated in 2021, and 1.7 million acres defoliated in 2022, mostly in Michigan and Pennsylvania."
So far, populations still are contained to the Midwest, Northeast, and southern U.S., though they may be spreading. (ff: yep, may be.)
The aerial spray contains what is said to be a safe pheromone that only effects the reproductive behavior and life-cycle of this particular insect species. (Naturally occurring viruses usually limit population maximums but they are slow to work.)
FACING FUTURE INFESTATIONS: IN CANADA
Said moths will eat pretty much any tree, including conifers, but mostly hardwoods of the Boreal Forest to the north if they got that far. And you have to wonder: what role might a warming planet have on the spread of the Spongy Moth to the north?
…climate change allows it to expand further north and west into Canada. It is estimated that the proportion of Canada’s deciduous forests at risk of damage by gypsy moth will grow from the current 15 percent to more than 75 percent by 2050.
Much of the management strategy to reduce this risk involves monitoring and control in the area west of Lake Superior, which has been a geographical barrier to the insect’s northern spread route between Ontario and Manitoba.
Such efforts, in conjunction with the “Slow the Spread” program in the midwestern United States, may help to prevent gypsy moth spread from the south.
So: if we have massive fires (with smoke) in Canada today, what will it be like if this alien (imported on purpose as a hopeful substitute for the silk moth) extends its range into Canada?
Think we have conflagrations and smoke today? Could get way worse. Healthy forests have so very many benefits, if we can only keep them healthy.
RESOURCES
Aerial treatments underway near Mount Rogers to slow spread of spongy moths Cardinal News
The Gypsy Moth Has a New Name, Could Do More Damage This Year MSN
The Effect of Climate Change on Gypsy Moth Climate, Forests and Woodlands