A pest that haunts residents of heavily wooded Maine is spreading rapidly, causing nasty rashes and breathing troubles, while forcing state officials to take action to slow its growth.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry declared February 2022 Browntail Moth Awareness Month, encouraging residents of the nation’s most forest-covered state to destroy the autumn insect’s habitats as they lay dormant in the winter.
The moth defoliates trees and causes humans to break out in a rash that resembles poison ivy, while the hairs of the moth’s caterpillars cause respiratory issues.
Rising temperatures, especially in the fall, are the reason for the moth’s growing nuisance, said University of Maine professor Eleanor Groden, the principal investigator of a new study published in the journal Environmental Entomology. Warmer weather allows the pests to grow fatter and healthier before hibernation.
The Maine The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is encouraging residents to destroy the Browntail Moth’s habitats while it lays dormant in winter. Getty Images/iStockphoto“If they come out of those webs as hearty individuals, older individuals maturity-wise, then they are better able to withstand that period and you get higher populations,” Groden said. “And you get defoliation that spring, and populations are raising havoc for anyone who has them in their yards.”
“(Browntail moth) populations in Maine have been in an outbreak phase since 2015 and the pest cannot be eradicated,” state officials warn.
“Winter is the best time to clip and destroy winter webs within reach or hire licensed arborists or pesticide applicators to reduce out-of-reach populations.”
University of Maine professor Eleanor Groden says that rising temperatures are fueling the Browntail Moth outbreak in the state. Getty Images/iStockphotowith Post wires
