Dec032009
Invasion of winter moths?
Filed under wildlife by david brooks at 10:58 am
I try to avoid writing “there are lots of so-and-so bugs around this year” stories, because with a lack of data (nobody does a running bug count) it’s hard to turn a few anecdotes into anything concrete. My favorite example: Last year I was asked by one person to write a story about how there weren’t any Halloween ladybugs this season, and by another to explain how come so many ladybugs were invading their house, both in the same day.
So without comment I will point you to a Boston Globe story that discusses an apparent outbreak of “winter moths” in greater Boston and points west. The story is properly careful about not jumping to conclusions but still tells the tale:
There is no formal moth census, said Joseph Elkinton, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and one of the state’s leading authorities on the insects. But anecdotally, there is no question that the winter moth population is abundant this fall, and gradually heading westward from Greater Boston, he said.
The story also notes that although the winter moth does virtually no harm to anything, the state is trying to find some natural predators to import, keeping its population from exploding - partly because any successful predator might be useful against the gypsy moth, as well.
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