After a 30-Year Lull, Gypsy Moth Caterpillars Infest the Champlain Valley sevendaysvt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sevendaysvt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The large, fuzzy caterpillars hang off the maple trees in front of Mike Isham’s farmhouse in Williston, Vt. The bitten, lace-like leaves on the outer edges of the trees are beginning to show signs of the caterpillars’ appetite. Isham plucks a fuzzy.
Vermont focuses on education to protect ash trees
State Entomologist for the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets Judy Rosovsky wraps up an ash log in her lab in Berlin, Vt., Tuesday, May 1, 2018. The log, which was cut in Orange, Vt., and contains evidence of emerald ash borer activity, is kept in a freezer with other samples of trees containing the larvae of the invasive insect to prevent its spread. Following a survey of towns bordering the four-town area where it has been confirmed, officials met in Berlin Wednesday to plot their next steps and discuss details of a quarantine. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Acer saccharum At first, it might seem counterintuitive to plant red maple in a sugar maple forest. Red maples can be tapped, but the sap is a little less sweet, meaning it requires more boiling to make desirable syrup. Red maple doesn t live as long as sugar maple, but it has a few advantages: a broader range, more adaptability to different conditions, and characteristics unappealing to the forest tent caterpillar, a pest that munches sugar maple leaves with abandon. At UVM s Proctor Maple Research Center, researchers have tapped more and more red maples; the trees now account for some 25 percent of taps, according to Mark Isselhardt, UVM Extension s maple specialist.