I can't resist the soap box

[woobat]

So, we're having a plague of tent caterpillars around here, and yeah, they're really gross. I have a high tolerance for a lot of "gross" things in the outdoors, but these freak even me out. Sylvantechie and I went on a hike yesterday, and had to walk along swinging a stick in front of us, knocking down the 'pillars and their webs in order to not

Comments

[kassrachel]

Gaaaaaah. I was initially just squicked by the caterpillars; now I'm depressed by them, too. :P Interesting that you mention ticks; we've seen more ticks than usual this year already -- yaoobruni has pulled a few off of himself, and we had to remove one from the cat recently, which was exciting. Little bloodsucking bastards.

Anyway, I think you're probably right, and it worries the hell out of me.

[ethicsgradient]

I think we talked about this at frisbee on Sunday, but I know that there was a similar plague in the Northeast in the late 70's or early 80's. I don't know how wide ranging or localized they tend to be, but I haven't seen anything in the intervening time in Connecticut or Massachusetts.

Also, if this normally happens every 10 years, a better question than "what is making this happen now" might be "why didn't it happen sooner?"

[thomascantor]

That plague was, I believe, comprised mostly of gypsy moths (Lymantria dispar), which (I think) can be more damaging in terms of defoliation than tent caterpillars. I don't have any information on similar plagues in either species. Anyone with better information is welcome to amend/update.

[minyan]

Sounds like a question of degree - tent caterpillars hatching on a cycle may be natural, and tent caterpillars hatching in these numbers may still be unusual and damaging. We would have to ask not just when these caterpillars have appeared, but how.

As a matter of perspective... it's natural for species to compete and for the composition of a forest to change. But blights aimed at elm, chestnut, beech, hemlock, dogwood and blue spruce all hitting within a hundred years? (I'm not blaming these on climate change alone, but on human interference, yes.) Disease is also natural, but smallpox epidemics are not. And they're preventable.

[woobat]

I think this discussion of the normal cycles of tent caterpillars has some interesting things in common with the discussions about the cycles in climate. Yes, normal cycles have occured in the past in both caterpillar populations and climate. Abnormal cycling is difficult at best to differentiate from normal cycling, and both timing of cycles and magnitude need to be teased out, and it's nearly impossible to do controlled experiments on large scale environmental systems

[woobat]

(cont

[eeblet]

To quote my the Big Lebowski: That had not occurred to us, dude.

Seems logical, and scary. I will try to kill more tent caterpillars... errr, in my V8 rental car. yikes. Affirms my commitment to not ever owning a car again (unless it's super low impact....).

[rissymonster]

To quote my the Big Lebowski: That had not occurred to us, dude.

Well, you were just not privy to the all new shit, man. Now go take that rental car and show those caterpillars what happens when they #$@* a stranger in the @$$. ;.)

[empress_pixel]

Cool icon.

Yeah, I am SO anti-car these days. If I rode a bike better, I'd probably do that a lot.