Gypsy moth: more complicated than you'd think

While waiting last week for my computer to return from urgent care, I contemplated a talk about biological controls by Joseph Elkinton, a professor of environmental conservation at the University of Massachusetts, that I heard last November. 

Gypsy moth caterpillar

    What Elkinton said about the history of gypsy moth in North America turns out to be unexpectedly relevant. We had a gypsy moth surge in 2016, and this year there has been significant defoliation by gypsy moth caterpillars, especially in southeastern Massachusetts.

Voracious gypsy moth caterpillars shred leaves

    A complicated web of factors influences the gypsy moth population. It all goes back to acorns.

    Gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), native to Europe, was introduced to Medford, Massachusetts by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, an astronomer dabbling in silk worm breeding. He thought he could cross the gypsy moths with native silk moths to produce silk in the US. The insects escaped from his home in the 1860s, and over 50 years they slowly established themselves in the wild. They’ve spread as far as Minnesota and North Carolina.

Life stages of the gypsy moth

    Elkinton explained that until 1989, gypsy moths experienced population outbreaks about every 10 years. Throughout the twentieth century, predator insects were introduced in hopes of controlling the gypsy moth population, but none did enough.

Predatory wasps kill caterpillars, but not enough

     Meanwhile, research into the ecology of the gypsy moth uncovered a system of natural controls. Robert Campbell of the US Forest Service found that the white-footed mouse was the most significant predator of the caterpillars, with birds less of a factor.

White-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, in captivity

     Mouse populations rose and fell with the supply of their main food, acorns, which fluctuated with weather conditions. The mice couldn’t expand their population enough to control gypsy moth outbreaks, when caterpillar numbers spiked exponentially.

    Outbreaks were brought to an end by Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus (NPV), which eventually killed up to 99 percent of the horde of larvae.

    This cycle continued until another accidental foreign introduction in 1989: Entomophaga maimaiga, a Japanese fungus. Infected by the fungus, gypsy moth caterpillars suddenly died all over southern New England.

    So with mice, viruses and fungi controlling its population, why is gypsy moth surging again? The levels of fungus are highest in wet years. Last year’s severe New England drought allowed the gypsy moth population to escape from its fungal control. This summer, caterpillars chomped foliage until June, when they started to die off. Caterpillars examined by Elkinton’s team showed a combination of viral and fungal infections. Wet weather had turned the tide.

    This means, thank heavens, that we don’t have to make the difficult decision whether to spray for gypsy moth.

    The future outlook for New England trees is mixed. Gypsy moths won’t die out completely, and our trees face a number of stresses from drought and other nonnative insect attacks. A tree can survive one defoliation, but repeated losses deplete its energy stores. Elkinton worries about major losses of native oaks, which the caterpillars particularly enjoy. Then what will happen to the white-footed mice?