I'm seeing very few gypsy moth caterpillars now and I don't know if that means that they're mostly pupating or mostly dead (my preferred choice). There's much less frass falling on the deck too. We've had a good wet spring and that should have encouraged the killing fungus to proliferate.

I looked up today at my deck overhang and saw these caterpillars hanging head down as if killed by the fungus (or the virus).

Reference: UMass Gypsy Moth Factsheet

I'm seeing limited damage on the oaks. I say 'limited' because at least they still seem to have fairly intact green leaves left for photosynthesis. There's a lot of variability in the damage on the different oaks.

The real test will be in a few weeks when the adult moths appear and the females start laying eggs. I feel hopeful, though, that this wet spring has turned the tide on the massive defoliation we experienced last year.

I also did major destruction of egg masses last fall and winter using detergent to disrupt the felty protection, and I don't know how helpful that was in just cutting down the number of eggs that hatched. There were many egg masses I couldn't reach.

Claire

Aargh! I spoke too soon. I went out and checked the bases of some of the oak tree trunks and two of them had masses of caterpillars on them. They looked as if many of them were dead (head down or bent) but that may be wishful thinking. The ones I could reach are certainly dead now - I emptied a bottle of spinosad spray (Captain Jack's Dead Bug) and used up some other sprays I had around. I'll get some more spinosad this afternoon.

Claire