I have my fingers crossed about the winter moths. There was one mild night near the end of November when they were out in places. But I really have not seen many. This very cold early December weather may help supress them...but I am not sure about that. I have often wondered if a long stretch of very cold weather from the end of November until February could prevent mating. But that, of course, almost never happens in southeastern New England where warm damp spells in winter, particularly early winter, are very common.

This year they're taking a break over the winter. "This will be the final Landscape Message for 2011, thanks for a great season! The message will be on hiatus in January and February 2012. New messages wil be available beginning in March of 2012. To receive immediate notification when the next update is posted, be sure to join our e-mail list." I'm on their e-mail list already, so I'll be notified in March and I'll post that one. It's a great resource and a portal to all sorts of interesting and useful links. Claire

For those of you who are Twitter oriented, "Now tweeting! UMass Extension's new daily twitter feed has gardening tips, events and musings on growing fruit, vegetables, lawns, and ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials. Daily sunrise and sunset times provided too. Follow us @UMassGardenClip for research-based garden advice. We'll also keep you posted on UMass workshops and events of interest to gardeners." https://twitter.com/UMassGardenClip

As far as I've read, Cyzenis albicans pretty much only affects the winter moth. ..................................................................................................... âÂÂItâÂÂs a difficult and lengthy undertaking to understand the dynamics of a population,â Elkinton explains, âÂÂbut itâÂÂs very important to study the natural enemy and its host range. This fly is very specific to the winter moth - it wonâÂÂt even attack other kinds of inchworm caterpillars,â he adds. Even the Bruce spanworm, a native species, which has hybridized with winter moths in some parts of the state but has its own set of predators keeping it in check, seems immune to Cyzenis albicans. Finding Protection in a Predator ..................................................................................................... It scares me a little that the native Bruce spanworm is hybridizing with the winter moth, but it's encouraging that there are native predators that attack the Bruce spanworm. Claire