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Boston on high blecch alert
By adamg on Tue, 07/05/2016 - 2:27pm
We just walked through Roslindale Square and there are so many gypsy moths you have to keep your mouth closed to avoid one flying in. Reports are coming in of equally gross conditions in South Boston and Dorchester.
Josh Deering reports his flight into Logan last night had to sit 20 or 25 minutes at the gate to clear a swarm of the moths to connect the jetway.
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Comments
allston too
swarming!
Longwood
Had NEVER seen a moth against my window, but have seen 2 or 3 today.
Gypsy Moth
Wont be pretty next summer, trees without leaves
That all depends
If we get some nice hurricanes to wet things down, there won't be any problems. There is a fungus that eats their larvae.
What's more freakish
I wandered the woods at night yesterday, and the only thing bugging us was the moths. Not one mosquito bite.
Leaves on trees
Drive through the pine hills in Plymouth on 3A and you'll what I'm talkies about. They eat everything !
Roxbury as well
saw four them today
Kendall Square checking in
Kendall Square checking in
ADORABLE!
ADORABLE!
moths
You can add Hyde Park to the list. They're fling around the yard like their radar has gone out or something, just frantically going in circles. Is this normal?
Same in Roslindale
We had one on our back porch, pretty much doing the moth version of suicide by cop.
Charlestown
Walked through a small swarm of them earlier. Ick.
The moth-chasing bird of Roslindale Square
On our way back to our car, we watched one brave little sparrow chase after one of the mini-beasts. Go, birds go!
Wow. I remember there was an
Wow. I remember there was an infestation of them in Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire back in the 1980s. My mother was backing the car out of the driveway and they would get stuck all over the tires. GROTY TO THE MAXXXX!!!
I'm having flashbacks ...
As a cub reporter, the Great Gypsy Moth Infestation was one of the first things I covered (since I covered three particularly leafy suburbs). So I remember the solution of wrapping a strip of tin foil around a tree and coating that with vaseline so the caterpillars couldn't climb up the tree.
Also, for what it's worth, we can blame a yahoo from Medford for all the moths.
We killed them before
We'll kill them again.
I remember as a child (and man, this is the first time I feel younger than you Adam) putting saran wrap around trees and putting petroleum jelly on the saran wrap to trap the caterpillars when they climbed up the trees. I don't know if that worked, but this is my first time dealing with the buggers in decades.
The Commonwealth has been fighting the battle for over a hundred years, so that knowledge base should help.
Torching!
I remember going around the yard with a blowtorch and lighting up all the nests. Looking back on it all I can think of is Kurt Russel in "The Thing."
Oh, uh
Medford, checking in.
Just one residential street on my commute in today, though, for some reason. "Where are all these butterflies coming from? Gosh, I hope they're not gypsy moths." Dammit.
Also remember
Putting the tin foil ring around the trees with grease on it.
I remember walking my dog and
I remember walking my dog and you couldn't avoid stepping on them. Houses with huge masses of caterpillars covering whole sides of houses. Watching my FIL hose them off his house and yes, there are trees with the old rings of Vaseline still visible. I remember driving to NH and the trees looked like the dead of winter, not a leaf in site. It was very odd to see trees in August leafless.
Oh, I hope we don't have another infestation like that year.
literally ran into a bunch of
literally ran into a bunch of them on Western Ave heading into Cambridge, bunch more on Mass Ave as well! I wonder why the influx of them in the middle of the day...
count West Roxbury in, too
Tons of these things around everywhere. Fun day to take the cat outside and watch him jump all over the place chasing these flying targets.
Top of the Hub
They are sticking to the windows on the top floors of the Hancock tower.
Strange and gross.
Pheromones are powerful things
Back in the 80's I had a roommate who worked at a gypsy moth research lab, apparently you can absorb their pheromones. Everywhere she went, the moths were sure to go, they would show up in the most unlikely places, out of thin air. The pheromones seem to settle around her feet and ankles (as evidenced by the moths' preference), anyone know why that would be?
Long sleeves and pants is the
Long sleeves and pants is the most likely culprit for the pheromones deftly in the ankles and wrists...
How long?
How long will this moth invasion last?
Invasion?
They were here all along ... breeding in your woodlands ... mwahahahaha!
Yeah, they are invasive, but that all goes back more than a century.
I see how it is
Making excuses for your fellow Medordite are we?
Fact - they're a pest.
Fact - Someone from Medford did this to us.
Fact- there is not a statue of limitations for ecological crimes*
* this one might not really be a fact TBH.
Blame Tufts
They may not have been involved, but we could at least get a pizza party for the local kids as remediation, right?
Moth! Moth!
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S08E17/260142.jpg?b64lines=IE1PVEgtTU9USC1NT1R...
Quick - get a pokeball!
Let's all scream and run like
Let's all scream and run like we're in a bmovie cult classic!
Some gypsy moth caterpillar snuff porn
A lovely fungus that attacks only Gypsy Moth caterpillars, digests their bodies, and then disintegrates into spores!
More on Entomophaga Maimaiga here: https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2009/03/18/entom...
Porter Square checking in.
Saw them in Porter Square this afternoon.
Same in Fort Hill
Accidently left the window open today and came in to find hundreds and hundreds swarming in our house
Eastie infestation
Over on the island here we've switched from one infestation of hairy, annoying pests trying to decimate the n'hood to another one....keep getting the hipsters and gypsy moths confused....which ones pupate in clustered nests and then spring out to devour all brunches in sight? One nearly flew into me on the way home...it was looking for someplace with good microbrews and a cornhole game set-up.
Seen a few in Watertown the
Seen a few in Watertown the past few days, but no swarms yet. Excited to have something to look forward to! And by excited I mean please kill me. I have a vivid childhood memory of watching a bulldozer on the news pushing a literal mountain of the caterpillars somewhere and it still makes me feel ill. Is it the dry conditions bringing them back, or is it more of a cyclical thing?