Spruce Budworm Tracker Requests

The spruce budworm is making a comeback in Maine. It is even worse in Canada and they are trying to find out how fast the budworm is spreading. The folks in the northern two thirds of the state of Maine are being asked to help in this study.

Are you seeing large amounts of moths around your porch or street light? They might be spruce budworm…and someone wants them! Over the past few days there have been numerous reports of moth swarms throughout Atlantic Canada. Weather radar imagery indicates that these are very likely immigrants coming on wind currents. That being said, they still don’t know much about these moths: Are there many female moths (with eggs) migrating or are they mainly males? Are the females that migrate carrying many eggs or have they already unloaded them? They are calling on people like you to help them answer these questions, and in doing so helping us to better understand how spruce budworm outbreaks spread. Here is what they are asking: Six simple steps.

(1) Look for moths (live or dead) beneath your porch or street light. They may be on the ground or wall.

(2) Sweep these moths into a paper or plastic bag.

(3) Add a piece of paper that has your name, address (of collection), and the date.

(4) Put the bag into your freezer (this is important to preserve the eggs for counting).

(5) Repeat as often as you can for the next three weeks – check once per day or a couple times per week, whatever works for you!

(6) Contact them to tell them who you are and we’ll contact your to arrange pickup of moths.

Contact Emily Owens (Budworm Tracker Coordinator) via e-mail (emily.owens@canada.ca), on Twitter (@emilyowenz), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/budwormtracker/?fref=ts) or through the Healthy Forest Partnership Website (http://budwormtracker.ca/#/).

As a side bonus, for all who participate, they will be adding your name to a draw to win one of 5 fancy “Budworm Tracker” T-shirts and will add you to the e-mail list (if you so desire) for occasional updates on the ongoing spruce budworm outbreak.