The following Monday, I was greeted with a phone call from a local television station and they wanted to meet me in the neighborhood. Not afraid to admit my mistake, I agreed to a meeting. By the time we met at the house of the lady who had called, it was pouring rain. She mentioned that her daughter had noticed a good number of these caterpillars last year in their back yard. When I explained that each of the caterpillars that turned into an adult female could have laid egg masses containing 1000 to 1500 eggs, she realized that they weren't very cute any more.
Most folks have a hard time noticing that anything is going on from a distance.
She was very concerned that the tree sprayers had only reached half way up the 75 to 80 foot tall trees. I pointed out that the residues of the pyrethroid would likely finish off the caterpillars in the upper parts of the trees as they descend in their daily routine of hiding and feeding. Sure enough, when we looked more closely at the trunks of some of the treated trees, there were several really sick looking larvae that had obviously been recently exposed to the residues remaining on the bark. I didn't say much, but logged that statement away for further investigation. Upon leaving, I took a quick tour of the Little Turtle area and could only find evidence of real gypsy moth damage on both sides of one street.