So for the last two or three years we have had these butterflies and caterpillars eating our trees. It seems like they are defoilating the trees. They only seem to bother the pine trees, the fir, juniper, and aspen seem to be just fine. The forest service dont seem to be to concerned with them, but alot trees look dead. The caterpillars are about 1 inch long and are green and then hatch into butterflies that have white wings. I was just wondering if any one else has seen these and if they are killing the trees or what.
Caterpillars & Butterflies.............. Got pictures? We can possibly identify the little buggers if you got pictures......here in northern Cal we have alot of tent caterpillars that defoliate Willows and Alders. They can survive attacks as long as some foliage remains on a tree. Trees store carbohydrates in reserve, so they have some for emergencies like this. But if the tree is completely defoliated several years in a row, all of its reserves can be used up and the tree starves to death. If you can get a sample of the critter and the damage, and enough of the foliage, your local Ag department should be able to identify it. Or if you know a local forester or Certified Arborist they may know about the pest. Most pests are host specific, meaning they only attack their favorite species of tree. You didn't say which pine they are attacking, and I'm not that familiar with eastern Oregon Pines.
I have seen a lot of caterpillars eating trees, D9,s, 977,s, 235,s even saw a 769B take a whole bunch of em out one day, but he really did not mean too, real shame for the fibreglass as it came off 2nd best.
But the real question may be did you actually see the 769B turn into a butterfly?
If he did.Well either drinking or smoking the good stuff.Maybe fell and hit his head.
The type of butterfly is a pine butterfly. And the type of tree they are killing is a ponderosa pine. The whole forest looks terrible. I will try to remeber to take a picture from a look out next time I am up there. The best thing is the forest circus wont do a thing about them. They are mismanageing the forest to death.
We have a lot of that on the east slopes of the Cascades. Much of it is the pine beetle larvae but I don't know of a moth or butterfly that might be causing it. It was explained to me that the larvae eat the new growth every spring which over a few years kills the tree. The same thing is happening with the policy wonks also. They won't remove the dead and dying trees because the leaf lickers say the forest should work naturally. As I understand it these bugs are imported. They also won't spray because again the leave lickers say it will affect other species. We had a huge fire over by Leavenworth in 96 that burned so hot that nothing would grow back. Even today those hills are bare. It looks to me like it will happen again all the way down the west coast. The only thing that will stop a long spread is the land that is part of the Indian reservations. They don't have a problem with spraying and harvesting.
I remember the old timers saying when the pastures were bunt off it was better.No Red bugs,Ticks etc.No under brush are dead trees to fuel a big fire.But now the Tree Huggers etc.would rather see thousands of acres and a few homes burnt up to save one bird etc.
I went up to Mt. St Helens last weekend and noticed the same thing in the vine maple and alder along the highway. But only up in the area that is mis-managed by the Circus. The Lazy W ground that has been re-planted and is being managed looks great.