We have been experiencing an alternative environmental-physiological threat along with the bat virus from China. A species called the brown-tail moth has invaded the southern Maine coastal areas (yes, our forty or so miles inland from the Gulf of Maine allows us to claim “coastal” status- just ask our Realtor!) in recent years. The original disruptive issue assigned to this creature was its toxicity to humans, especially skin. The hairs of this creature, which manifests itself as a caterpillar before becoming a white moth (with a brown tail, duh!), causes rashes, itching, and is quite horrible from what we have learned.

We discovered this spring that this caterpillar has been ravishing our oak trees. A number of them, but not all, have been fully defoliated from the top on down. These are big trees. There is tremendous surface volume of leaves available per tree and much of them are gone. Since several of these oaks are right next to the house, the additional downside of losing lots of leaves is the caterpillars have been dropping thousands of tiny poops on our deck and side lawn. Thousands.