At first, the caterpillars - called green-striped mapleworms - stay together and feed voraciously. Two weeks later, the tiny yellow eggs hatch. Trees of choice are silver, red, and sugar maples, but they might also select oak trees in some areas. If successful, a female lays up to 200 eggs in groups of 10 to 30 on the undersides of the leaves of a host tree the next night. And before there are eggs, there is mating, which usually takes place in the evening. That supposition signified a need for increased observation of the nearby maples during the next few weeks: Dryocampa rubicunda adults may be darling, but their larvae can be destructive.īut before there are larvae, there are eggs. Female antennae have a simple feather-like arrangement, while the male has a more complex structure. Even without a hand lens, we could see that they were bright pink and feathery. Witness a nifty self-defense strategy: curling up deathlike on one's side with wings folded in.īecause the moth stayed still for several moments (it is at its most sluggish on cool mornings), we were able to observe its antennae.
Everyone gasped in shock as I placed it in a nearby bush, where it swung upside down, clinging to a leaf stem. With wings spread wide, the moth was just over an inch across and just under an inch long.Īs I coaxed it from the door handle to my finger, it spread its wings for a brief photo op, but then it seemed to die on the spot. The head looked like a yellow craft pompom. The same pink spilled onto the legs, much to the surprise and delight of the kids. Its woolly body was bright yellow above and raspberry pink below. The hindwings were pale yellow with a touch of pink along the edges. "Our" moth had purplish-pink forewings with a creamy-yellow band across the middle. The moth's coloring can vary from pink to purple and from yellow to white. It was a rosy maple moth, Dryocampa rubicunda, notable for its dipped-in-sherbet coloring. Trees that are completely defoliated may be unsightly for a while but will usually leaf out and recover.The church service was about to begin when some breathless kids pulled me out of my seat to "come see this awesome, pretty, pink-and-yellow, fuzzy baby moth!" on the Sunday school door. Larger trees are more difficult to treat. Acelepryn (chlorantraniliprole) or Conserve (spinosad) is a better choice for commercial applicators. Insecticides such as cyfluthrin, bifenthrin, acephate or carbaryl will also control mapleworms, but are more likely to trigger outbreaks of other insect or mite pests. Spinosad is highly effective on caterpillar pests and “homeowner formulations” containing 0.5% spinosad are readily available at co-ops and garden centers. In relatively rare situations, unusually heavy infestations of green mapleworms cause severe, sometimes complete, defoliation to maple trees in home and commercial landscapes.Ĭontrol: If heavy infestations of greenstriped mapleworms threaten to defoliate young maple trees, trees that are still small enough they can be sprayed, these caterpillars can be controlled by spraying with an insecticide that contains spinosad. Although these insects are relatively common and widely distributed, their numbers are usually low enough that they go largely unnoticed. The caterpillars, known as green mapleworms, are light-colored with green, longitudinal stripes and feed primarily on maples, and occasionally oaks. Here in the Deep South, there are two to three generations per year, but only a single generation occurs farther north. Spot a rosy maple moth resting on the side of a building where it has been attracted by lights, and you might think you are looking at some exotic tropical insect, but rosy maple moths are native insects that occur throughout the eastern U.S.