ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 10, 2012) \u2013 An infestation of spring cankerworms have eaten the leaves off of many trees in Charles and St. Mary\u2019s Counties\u00a0 in Southern Maryland; however, entomologists with the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) expect most trees to survive the defoliation without difficulty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese green caterpillars are often mistaken for the much more destructive gypsy moth,\u201d said MDA Forest Pest Management Program Manager Bob Tatman, \u201cTheir presence, coupled with the obvious defoliation, has led some local residents to express concern about what\u2019s going on. Trees experiencing defoliation due to cankerworms usually recover completely if they are not otherwise stressed and many of the leaves have already started to grow back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cankerworms are native insects that have exhibited small one- or two-year outbreaks around Maryland, the last one was in 2007 in Anne Arundel and Cecil Counties.\u00a0 The outbreaks are difficult to predict and more likely to be gone after the second year than to persist. Residents who are concerned about the cankerworm\u2019s impact on high-value trees may want to consider insecticide treatment by a licensed pesticide applicator. In addition, watering and fertilizing may also help keep trees healthy.<\/p>\n
More information on cankerworms, gypsy moths, and other forest pests can be found at the Forest Pest Management website:\u00a0 www.mda.state.md.us\/go\/cankerworm.php<\/a> or by contacting MDA\u2019s Forest Pest Management office at (410) 841-5922.\u00a0 A list of licensed pesticide applicators can be found at www.mda.state.md.us\/plants-pests\/pesticide_regulation\/pesticide_db.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 10, 2012) \u2013 An infestation of spring cankerworms have eaten the leaves off of many trees in Charles and St. Mary\u2019s Counties\u00a0 in Southern Maryland; however, entomologists with the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) expect most trees to survive the defoliation without difficulty. \u201cThese green caterpillars are often mistaken for the much Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[72,71],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-cankerworms","tag-trees"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}