Residents raise concerns over rise in Caledonia gypsy moth population

Gypsy moth caterpillars have presented a growing concern for some Caledonia Township residents over the last couple years, prompting a handful of residents to speak at Township Board meeting held Wednesday, June 20, 2018. Gavin McIntyre | MLive.com(MLive File Photo)

CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP - Prompted by a handful of complaints concerning gypsy moth populations in a few different areas of Caledonia, Township Administrator Richard Robertson invited residents to share their concerns in a public forum held during this week's Township Board meeting.

Over the last three weeks or so, Robertson said he has received about a dozen complaints concerning the moths, with most of those calls coming from the 66th Street area near Campau Lake.

Anne Elve, a resident of 66th Street who spoke during the board's meeting on June 20, said she and her husband, Mark, have come to refer to the area as "ground zero" for gypsy moths ever since they first began encountering them last spring.

"Mark and I noticed the emergence of this strange and unusual caterpillar last spring," Elve said, adding that neither of them knew what they were dealing with initially. "As the weeks progressed, the situation became dire, and I mean dire. There were caterpillars everywhere and then they started to eat and we could hear this munching sound up in the trees.

"I didn't think it would happen again (this year)," she said. "I just had no idea that it could get worse. It's been going on for several weeks and every day we see more and more of the caterpillars."

Terry Crumback, another 66th Street resident, said he has had to sweep off his porch and clean his windows and window screens countless times over the last month as the gypsy moth caterpillars have taken over his yard.

"This is the second year in a row it's been bad on 66th Street," Crumback said. "If you're going to sit out on your deck or do anything outside, you almost got to sweep everything off or blow things off with a leaf blower.

"Our covered porch, I don't know how many times I've swept that off or blew it off and had to clean it, the windows and the screens," he said. "There's chewed up leaves everywhere ... it's a lot of maintenance."

One of the ways communities around West Michigan, including Wyoming, Kentwood, Walker and Cascade Township, attempt to thwart the spread of the gypsy moths is by spraying a bacterial agent designed specifically to target the moths' larvae.

According to Robertson, Caledonia has not had to utilize that approach for several years because the insects have not generally been an issue for township residents.

"I've been at the township in my capacity in administration at least 10 years doing this and last year was the first year I got any calls that I can recall on gypsy moths," Robertson said. "This year, there were more calls and I would say that the intensity of calls was much, much greater than it was last year."

After consulting with officials in Kentwood and Cascade and reaching out to the Michigan State University Extension, Robertson said he was not entirely sure that Caledonia needed to employ the spraying method to control the gypsy moth population, however.

According to MSU Extension educator Robert Bricault, a fungus known as Entomophaga maimaiga, which was introduced in Michigan in 1991, acts as a natural control for gypsy moths, turning the caterpillars into dried-out shells of fungal spores.

The fungus needs moist conditions to grow and infect the caterpillars, however, and Michigan has experienced back-to-back relatively dry spring seasons, according to Bricault, which might explain why many areas across the southern half of the Lower Peninsula are witnessing large populations of gypsy moths for the first time in nearly 20 years.

With that in mind, Robertson intimated that he was not exactly eager to invest in hiring a consultant and carrying out a spray suppression program, especially, as he noted, seeing as Cascade spent $70,000 to spray for gypsy moths last year, plus another $8,000 for a consultant on the matter.

"If we're going to do a program, it would begin with a consult of some sort where in the fall an expert goes around and evaluates what the population likelihood is and then makes recommendations about where spraying should occur," Robertson said. "Then that becomes a contract that includes a helicopter service and they plan that service for, typically, in May or early June."

The notion of creating a special assessment district to target only those areas of the township that might benefit the most from a spray suppression program was floated by Trustee Tim Bradshaw during the meeting, but the board will not make a decision about what to do, if anything, until a later date.

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