Winter Moths - If you see Winter Moths you need to treat them or they can kill your trees within three years.

Wow, this year we have seen many more winter moths than in past years and as a result, many of you have called with concerns. Rest assured, this is not the time that the winter moth creates problems for your trees. This is the time that the winter moths are laying their eggs in the branches and twigs of your deciduous trees. There is no effective method to prevent this. In the early spring the eggs will hatch and produce a tiny microscopic caterpillar which will drill into the buds found at the end of those twigs.

In order to understand how the winter moth and other pests and diseases affect your trees a short discussion on how a tree grows and maintains its vitality is helpful. During each growing season, after its leaves have opened, the sunlight used in the process of photosynthesis, creates the food and energy necessary for the health and vitality of a tree. This food is stored deep within the tree and can be viewed much the same way one views deposits to a savings account. During the winter, the tree goes into a dormant state. In the spring, the tree draws upon those stored reserves, or deposits, to help it awaken from its dormant state, open its leaves, grow its roots and branches and maintain itself as a vital healthy plant.

A period of drought, disease or insect infestation stresses the tree and causes it to draw down more deeply on its reserves or deposits. If this happens one year because of a drought condition, then another year because of pests such as winter moth then the tree is unable to fully replenish its reserves or deposits during that growing season. The tree will keep drawing on its deposits or reserves until they are spent; it will then continue to stress and ultimately die. In general, it takes only three successive years for the tree to go into its death spiral. Unfortunately, after each single year of stress, it takes more than one year to build the tree’s reserves back to where they should be.

Now, back to that tiny microscopic caterpillar. When the leaf opens in the spring you'll notice small holes in the leaf, those holes were caused by the newly hatched caterpillar burrowing into the bud. As the spring continues and the caterpillar grows, it continues eating the rest of the leaf. When we see as many moths as we have this fall, we know there is trouble ahead. There will be many caterpillars eating many leaves and that will prevent the tree from photosynthesizing enough to replace the energy that was used to bring the tree out of its dormant state. In addition it may expend more energy to produce a second set of leaves. When the tree cannot replace what it has used or save for its future needs. It becomes highly stressed. What to do?

If we can reduce the amount of leaf feeding then the tree can replenish itself. This spring we will take action with our winter moth service; it may entail one or more treatments, depending on the level of caterpillar infestation. We typically spray with Conserve (an organic approved biological) which will stop the caterpillar from feeding on the leaves. If you nave not arranged for this service and would like us to evaluate your landscape, click here, call (508-359-9905), or fax (508-359-8125) us and we will do an in free depth analysis of your trees and leave you our recommendations. This is a good time to request the analysis as we expect a large caterpillar population this spring and there are limits to the number of new properties that we feel is appropriate for us to commit to.

I hope that you have found this information helpful. It is the kind of information we e-mail to our clients whenever there is information we believe would be useful.

Mike Lueders

Click Here and let us help you with your Winter Moth problems