Last year the moths seemed to like my rugosa the best. Rugosas cannot be sprayed, so I hand-picked as many moths off as I could. The moths stayed around for a couple of weeks, then disappeared. My rugosa recovered just fine. She grew new leaves and bloomed profusely. I haven't seen the moths this year, yet. We did have a large maple tree, also infected with the moths, cut down, so I'm hoping the moths are gone. I heard that spraying must be done a year in advance for the moths to go away. The moths also dined on my Fairy Rose, but not too badly. The Fairy also recovered nicely.

I have just come in from a mid/ early spring inspection of our 55 j maples and i cannot begin to tell you how happy I am. For the first time in the past four years, we are not yet again the horrified victims of the winter moth(wm) blitzkrieg!! Only one of the j maples had a significant infestation (it was one third to halfway into leafing out and one foot away from two uninfested j. maples) and the guilty demons felt the full fury of my expert hand to hand combat. Or should I say finger to finger combat, because my technique involves grabbing a branch with one hand and, with the other, squishing the leaf bunches at each branch tip (where the worms hide in their glued together web of tightly curled nascent leaflets.) The other favorite wm prey, aeschulus pavia, prunus and other acers, seem to be on a successful road to fully leafing out , unscathed. It�s not that I mind having to have them sprayed , it�s that that spraying has been what i would usually call 50% effective and has always required repeating after a week or so, with the result being some very ragged unattractive foliage (and that on trees famous for their attractive foliage.) So Yippeeeee!! I hope the same will be your luck this year!! best, mindy www.cottonarboretum.com/

Hi Gardengal, I've done gypsy moth inspections, and I study invasive species ecology. Neither the Asian nor the European gypsy moths are established here or anywhere on the West Coast, including BC. The traps are survey tools and they are hung EVERYWHERE in western WA. Next time you go for a country drive in the summer, watch for them. I've seen them on logging roads in the Pinchot National Forest. I've seen them at camp grounds on Hood Canal. I've seen them at boat launches on the Columbia River. Every few years or so somewhere in western WA has a ground spray done because more than one or two moths were trapped in a small area AND egg masses were found. They are constantly being carried in by all the shipping and people relocating but they are not established. If someone has hundreds of moths in their yard, it's not likely to be the GM. Hoofbeats mean horses not zebras, after all. The West Coast (including BC) does not have GM in the same sense that New York does. They don't live and reproduce here. They are a constant threat of introduction and every year there's one or two or so adult males found somewhere in the state, but finding egg masses is a rare event. It's good to be vigilant but chances are no one in this area is ever going to see a GM without traveling cross continent. I've only found egg masses once myself and I was specifically looking for them in my 40hr week job beating back a known infestation. Dotty, you can catch one in a jar and take it to a pro for identification, but note that adult GM probably aren't going to be found this time of year, they're out in the summer and there should be only egg masses this time of year. And, you'd have to have had dozens and dozens of egg masses in your yard to get hundreds of adult male moths. The female European GM does not fly. That means you'd have to have brought in something from back east (or the Russian Far East for the Asian GM) that had all those egg masses on it. Here's a better link for info about the moth itself. There's a link to contact someone if you really think it's GM on your maple. Here is a link that might be useful: Gypsy Moth general info for BC

in my sand... i could bury pot and all ... if you have clay soil ... and will make a non draining pot... do not bury the pot and all ... place them on the foundation of the house.. on the north side ... and make a note to tip them on their sides near thxgving ... all the better if they end up getting buried in snow ... in this application the plastic pot if perfect ... in the alternative... simply pull them out of the pots.. and plant them .. say.. in the veg garden ... and repot in early spring ... or even better.. put them in there future home ... maple seedlings.. in nature are indestructible ... the only thing that might kill them ... is too much love... DO NOT OVERTHINK THIS .. and do NOT treat them like babies... they are hardcore.. carefree.. long lived weed trees ... [that's personal bias.. lol] .... all that .. presuming you arent dealing with some non zone appropriate maple .. as there are a bazillion and a half different kind of maples.. and you really havent IDd it for us ... a pic of the leaves might get you an ID here ... and.. to reinforce such ... they are not babies.. and not houseplants .. do NOT treat them as such .... ken