Gypsy Moth clusters

[cur dog]

While stringing new lateral lines yesterday, I noticed quite a few egg clusters on my maples. Some trees had 3 or 4 at head height some had less or none at all. I usually just brush them off, and onto the ground. Should I be doing more?

[heus]

What do these clusters look like?

[Gary R]

The egg masses are white to yellow in color, round or oval and about a nickle to larger than a quarter in size. We had a bad year with Gypsy moths. Many Oaks were totally defoliated. My Maple even had significant leave loss. I did not rake leaves this year. I have had the PA pest specialist at my place a couple of times. We were able to get into a cost share program to cover the cost of aerial spraying. It is still a large expense. I hope that we won't have any more defoliation or we could lose trees.

[cur dog]

I'm just wondering if the eggs that I'm brushing off will hatch on the ground. Should I be scraping them off into a container? Am I even getting a large portion that are on the tree? I've always thought they laid the bulk of their eggs on the rough bark in the botton 6ft or so of the tree. Any thoughts? Am I wasting my time even trying?

[Gary R]

Rubbing them off the trunk should make you feel better:rolleyes: But, they can be all the way up the tree. We have 3,000 to 4,000 egg masses per acre. Fruitless to manually remove them. Commercial aerial spraying is the way if the infestation is bad. You can hope for a wet late spring and a fungus in the ground will kill them.

[1arch]

Just read that hybrid sting less wasps are being bred and broadcast to control the GM. They forage on the eggs. Kind of ironic but we have been enduring larger than usual population of wasps (with stingers) for the previous two years.