A really crazy Spring

[Cheryl Adams]

here so far this year in West Bridgewater! Perhaps due mostly to unusual cold and wet. Flowers, shrubs and trees and presence of birds have never been more beautiful! My favorite 'different' bird so far has been a Woodcock I jumped out in the pasture back in April, and Cheryl saw three pairs of Oriels and a Hummer here yesterday!

 

Part of our plant success is clearly due to the extraordinary and unexpected absence of Winter Moth, which is a total surprise to me based on trapping here last winter. From this, I was predicting another 'bad' season. So, I've either misinterpreted these results or something 'new' happened here between last fall and now. I can still go out back and easily find a few WM cats, but, for the most part for the first time in many years, trees here are almost 'normal'.

 

Unfortunately, butterflies here have been a different story for a couple of reasons...

 

First off, there haven't been any! (except for reliable Cabbage Whites and ONE fly-by Polygonia sp.last month)

 

Now, for those who are wondering what else there could be, it's the slowest and weakest Baltimore recovery I've had since starting this colony 13 years ago. Several nest sites that started with hundreds of cats last fall, have failed to return a single survivor, and most others just a fraction of the original numbers. I have no explanation for this for the most part. Parasitism among those cats that remain seems normal, but several nest sites did show signs of rodent damage.

 

I have held off on mowing hoping that some cats would appear, and this has been partially successful with a few dozen small cats showing up the past couple of days after very careful searching, and on other nest sites evidence is suggesting that recovery is simply very late this year. Clearly there are things about the 'overwintering' I haven't got entirely right yet.

 

So, really great to hear all of the sightings being reported by all.

 

Don Adams

[boet...@psis.umass.edu]

Hi Don and all,

Don is dead on. I am working on rearing a species specific fly, Cyzenis
albicans, to control winter moth and we have been watching Dons house. Here
are the number of caterpillars per bud from Don's oak tree by year: 2004 3.75,
2005 7.85, 2006 3.70, 2007 2.1, 2008 0.033 !!! Wild! His backyard maple still
has 1.3 per bud this year but overall a big drop most of the places we have
been. We are still finding some damage in places like Wompatuck State park
(densities 1.6 to 3 per bud) and we were able to do a fly release in Wellesley
on Friday as well as one in Seekonk Friday afternoon. But overall having
trouble finding good sites.

If anyone is seeing bullet hole leaves within the 495 beltway, or South-
East MA including the Cape, please send me an email with your address. I am
looking for places to collect caterpillars over the next few weeks (we use
about 2,000 winter moth caterpillars a day in our lab at the moment for
producing Cyzenis flies for next years releases). You will know you have a good
site if your car or truck is covered in catterpillar frass (ie poop!) every day
when you go out. I will go just about anywhere in MA if you have high densities
and don't mind us shaking your trees. We promise to be gentle.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff Boettner
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
Room 115 Ag. Eng. Bld.
250 Natural Resources Road
UMASS Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003

boet...@psis.umass.edu