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Reports are coming in from all over about the annual explosion in the winter-moth population.
As long as you're standing there, trying to figure out how to get in your house without bringing a ton of the bugs with you, why not count them and then fill out the annual survey by the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project (since, yes, these things are not native, and only started showing up in the 1990s)?
Jennifer Forman Orth, our go-to guru for invasive species, predicts:
With temps expected to be in the 60s today, we're probably going to see a big emergence of winter moths today/tonight.
And just in time for the emergence of zillions of sex-crazed male moths (the females all just laze about on trees, awaiting suitors), the state has posted its winter-moth survey for you to report the presence of these bugs.
Almost anybody who's had a porch lit after dark the past couple of days has gotten to see our annual infestation of male winter moths (for, as you recall, the female winter moths don't fly and just calmly wait their light-mad suitors).
Gah! Kidlet had to provide cover on the porch tonight when we came back from the supermarket - she had to fight the little buggers off as I opened the front door.
All those winter moths you see flying around are males. The females have only stubby little vestigial wings and patiently wait in trees for their suitors to come calling.
Pazzo Books in Roslindale is offering a $5 credit to the first person who brings in a female adult cankerworm.
I went out for takeout tonight and the winter moths were EVERYWHERE. Feh! But as bad as they were tonight, look for really gross conditions this spring as their caterpillars hatch, eat all the leaves on every tree around and then drop to the ground, gorged beyond belief and ready to pupate. Just like last spring, only worse. Where'd they come from? Europe, from which they probably hitched a ride on some unsuspecting cargo ship or plane a few years ago.
The University of Massachusetts's winter moth fact sheet has plenty of fun facts, such as: Female moths don't fly, but instead attract the winged males to their boudoirs with plenty of moth perfume.
