Mondays with Martha #80 - European Gypsy Moth Egg Mass Removal

This week I follow up on my Mondays with Martha #62 post and discuss why invasive gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) egg masses should be removed during the winter months. Learn about an introduced parasitoid wasp species, Ooencyrtus kuvanae, that provides important biological control of egg masses when temperatures are above freezing. I demonstrate how to remove egg masses with a scraping tool and soaking in soapy water. This simple invasive species control technique can be used to minimize the spread of the species on man-made objects and stressful defoliation of targeted landscape trees.
For a closer look at both Lymantria and Ooencyrtus, check out BugGuide.net:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/8780
https://bugguide.net/node/view/113314