One of my neighbors used a power washer and some "microbial soap" that he got from Home Depot, he says the power washer will only spray up about 30 feet, but due to the damn caterpillars climbing up and down so much, it still works good.

All of his trees were left mostly untouched. he's maybe 1/4 mile from my place. He also sprayed this on his house and says it kept them from making all the cocoons that I have on my house.

Professional high pressure spraying. Several hundred dollars for big trees and good size yard last time I did it in the early 90's. I use Sevin on my blueberries and fruit trees and what ever else I want to save that is low but can't reach big trees.

I have also heard 55 gallon drum of Dawn dishwashing soap and water mixture and a power sprayer but have never tried it.

I have a place I'm gonna need to do something next season. 3 hrs of cleanin moth worm poop off the place an dozens of trees with just a few leaves left. Has anyone tried the tape around the tree thing. So the caterpillars cant climb the trees.

Spores
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Ron about 32 yrs ago we had a very bad outbreak . I moved to a new house surrounded by oak trees and the previous taped the trunks. It seemed to work for those crawling up from ground but wasn't sure if some were getting to the leaves via branches of others. Ugly site with hundreds of worms stuck in the tape.

Thanks. gonna look into when to do the tapeing

They are moths now flying around by the millions in the days to come. Here is an interesting read

http://news.wgbh.org/2016/07/02/loca...r-trees-leaves
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Here's a picture of one of my trees that was completely empty and now, it seems like it will be fine. the couple behind it are still bare and dead looking though. And YES I have about 4 million damn moths flying all over the place now. During the day they like to cling to the side of the house.

They will be depositing light brown egg clusters all over the place especially on
the undersides of the tree branches. At least they are done crapping.
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Just read that next year's damage may be more severe. Because this season has been too dry "to spark a fungus that has proven in past years to be a successful gypsy moth predator". Two successive years of defoliation can kill oak trees.

Obviously not the expert Spence consulted.
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The defoliated trees are already getting new leaves.

My parents live in central MA and the moths are everywhere. They are swarming. Put your wool garments in a safe place.
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With leaves coming down now its interesting to see how many and how much of the leaves were eaten.....