The Town of Newmarket needs your help to locate, document and destroy egg masses from the invasive Lymantria Dispar Dispar (LDD) moth.
The municipality has released an online form where you can submit the locations of trees on which you've spied the eggs laid by the female gypsy moth.
Reporting the egg masses will assist the town’s efforts to contain the moth, with the population spiking this season and caterpillars posing a threat to vulnerable trees.
“Data collected will help the town identify hot spot areas, identify how vast the LDD population is in the community and help to develop strategies for next year to mitigate the negative effects of LDD,” the municipality said on its website.
The egg masses are fuzzy and tan coloured, ranging in size from a dime to a loonie. The masses are laid individually or in a large clump on trees.
The LDD population has spiked across all of York Region. Officials expect the invasion to continue next year and to wane after that. The region and its municipalities have worked to combat the outbreak, putting out information and providing free burlap sacks for people to create traps for the caterpillars.
The submission form asks you to provide the location of the egg mass, the estimated quantity of eggs, and an optional image upload.
Besides tracking, the town said you can also scrape egg masses off trees and place them in a bucket of soapy water for a day or two. The town is advising people to wear gloves while doing this work, as touching the caterpillars can irritate the skin.
“This will help reduce numbers of caterpillars hatching and defoliating the trees,” York Region said about egg scraping on its LDD website.
To find more information and to access the Newmarket submission form, go to newmarket.ca/lddmoth.
