March of the Caterpillars Continues
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 @ 3:57 AM
Prince George, B.C. – No matter which part of the city you look at, the caterpillar infestation has ravaged the foliage of Prince George in no uncertain terms this spring. It has been nearly 3 weeks since 250News first shared the story of the infestation ( click here) and with any luck, the Western Tent Caterpillars that have been on the march through the City will soon start to cocoon.
And so it continues as these critters, actually the larval form of the insect group that includes butterflies and moths, fatten up on the leaves of a varied number of tree types in preparation for the transformation to their winged form. But in which direction is the local migration headed? We posed that question to Claire Watkins, who is the Integrated Pest Management Co-ordinator with the City of Prince George. Her immediate reaction to that question was a hearty chuckle.
“It’s really hard to predict where they’re going to go. It’s a lot easier to predict year to year where they’re not going to be. They don’t seem to hit en masse in the same spot two years in a row. It’s almost like they know okay we’ve defoliated this area this year, so we’re just going to move over a little bit next year and hit the next area. That’s just my observation. The only place that doesn’t seem to apply is in the downtown area because there is no next section (of foliage) for them to move to. That (downtown) seems to be one place that they will go repeatedly because we’ve got our downtown trees, you’ve got a pathway, and there’s no alternate food source. But otherwise, as far as predicting 
where they’re going to go in the city? Not so much.”
where they’re going to go in the city? Not so much.”(at right, caterpillars infest a sapling, photo-250News)
Watkins lives out toward West Lake and says that area hadn’t really seen any caterpillars “until about two weeks ago and they went through six acres in less than 8 hours. They had stripped every Poplar, Cottonwood, Birch on our property in that time. There were that many.” Watkins can’t say whether there are more caterpillars this year than in recent years. “I don’t know if it’s greater. It’s hitting different areas. I was up in a helicopter a week ago and last year when I was up in the same area, in the Hart, you could see a swath of defoliation that went for miles. And yet this year I was only seeing it patchy. But then other people are reporting it thicker where they are. So is it more this year? It’s hard to say. I think it all depends where you are.”
Watkins says not being able to predict where the caterpillars will hit “is one of the reasons why we can’t even consider trying to do any kind of treatment. To plan a treatment program, you’re looking at aerial spraying. It’s expensive and there’s no guarantees that it’s going to be effective.” She says that’s why the City does no spraying or treatment of any kind for the caterpillars. “The only treatment that the City would even remotely consider is called BTK, which is a natural bacterial larvicide. But it’s one of these ones where you have to spray it on the trees, the caterpillars come in and eat it and they die within three days. So, they’re still going to defoliate. It might slow them down a little bit but you’re talking about spraying a pesticide aerially. So, number one you’re going to have resistance even if it is a safe product and it is well-targeted. And it’s also expensive to do any kind of aerial spraying. Any time we use pesticides in the city we’ve got to meet three criteria: it’s got to be effective, it’s got to be cost-effective and it’s got to be environmentally-friendly. And there is nothing out there that meets the criteria to do it.”
Watkins isn’t convinced with the theory that caterpillar populations run in cycles. “Everybody keeps saying that there’s a 7 to 10 year cycle. And usually something will hit the population like a disease, something that really knocks them back. They’ll go away for a few years and then the population seems to increase to the point where the last couple of years have been pretty bad.”
So how long before we the transition to moth stage? Watkins says “that is determined by weather and food. You’ll notice, if you see them in any great amount, there’s really little ones and there’s big ones. Once they reach full size something in their make-up tells them it’s time to cocoon, it’s time to become moths. It all depends on how long it takes them to go from that little tiny stage until they are full-grown.”
As far as her property west of town, Watkins says “this year it got really personal with me. Oh my house is just covered. I resorted to the shop vac yesterday. I think the only thing I managed to do was activate my septic tank because I flushed about 5 gallons of them down the toilet. But like I say, we really hadn’t seen many, and I’ve been out there 8 years. And then I noticed a few one day and within two days we were just covered. They were further down the Blackwater last year.”
Watkins does see one positive coming out of the infestation. “The one good thing about this is that with all the deciduous trees defoliated all my little Spruce and Pines and Balsams are all going to get a whole lot of sunlight and rain until the leaves come back on these other trees. So it’s almost like nature is giving the conifers a fighting chance to get a little growth.”
Comments
BTK is applied though aeriel spraying in lots of places to control the spread of the gypsy moth. It was even done in Victoria. I don’t see why it can’t be done here.
see Ministry of Forests website
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/gypsymoth/aerial_details.htm
We need to do something.
I fail to see how Dennis Rader can do anything about this caterpillar infestation… I say keep him in jail and let him rot!
Well, they kill black bears for doing what they do naturally, (fighting over sows). They should immediately pull out all the stops and declare war on these savage beasts, (caterpillars). Nobody is safe any longer. More money is spent fighting the Zombie apocolypse than on the caterpillar apocolypse. What is the world coming to when people are so absolutely paranoid of frikken caterpillars, LMAO!!!
Dragonmaster,
They are creepy crawly little b**t*rds and YES I know I am paranoid of them!!!! LMAO
Absolutely anything that can be done to get rid of them should be done!!!
….Noah goofed there…he should have left them off the ark!!!! LOL
Lets nuke’em. That’ll save us!
They deal with us, we deal with them (and usually win), that’s just how natural earth seems to have to work these days, so PGguy, what would you like to do about it? Enlighten us?
When they all become “moths” They will all head down to the front doors of the Stupidstore. They did last time.
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