Winter Moth in Marlborough

12/14/2015
By: Maxim and Andrey Masleyev
Special thanks to Jim Burrows for his picture

Have you seen these guys lately?

There is a lot of them in Marlborough right now. This is a so called "winter moth" or Operophtera Brumata. Most of the insects are afrad of cold weather, but winter moths emerge from the ground in November or December. They could be pretty like this:

Or nasty like this:

But are they good or bad? We do not know about you, but we think THEY ARE REALLY BAD!!! Every female lays a cluster of approximately 150 eggs. In March or April the eggs hatch into a smooth green inchworm. The caterpillar spins a strand of silk, which, with the help of air currents, takes it into tree canopies. Once there, the damage to the tree begins as the caterpillars work their way into the tree buds and leaves to feed. Winter moth caterpillars can also drop from trees to nearby ornamental shrubs such as roses. When feeding ends in mid-June the caterpillars migrate into the soil to pupate and emerge as moths.

To fight the moth, you can spray the bark of trees to suffocate the eggs. Use horticultural oil in early spring when temperatures are around 45F. You can find it in