[ProfessorM]

terrible Karl. Been eating everything for 2 weeks now. My oaks look like crap. I just pray no gypsy moths as that double whammy will probably kill them for sure. They can't take this year after year. I am really thinking of taking a couple down. I have one with a canopy of a 1/4 acre right over my house. Beautiful white oak. It would be real hard getting used to that being cut down but the mess is really getting old. Probably at least 3 years of wood in that one. Trunk is 25 feet of straight timber. A boat builders dream. At least the winter moths are early eaters and the trees should be able to leaf out, I hope. Sucks though, real bad.

the problem is this crap weather. They get in the bud and start there. If we have warm sunny weather the buds pop out quick and the pillars don't have enough time to do complete damage but this cool damp cloudy weather keeps the buds closed and thus they get to stay in there eating a lot longer. Spraying is too darn expensive. All my apples and pears are ruined. Blueberries are borderline ruined. Really getting hard to raise anything. The fruit buds can't be sprayed with insecticide as the little pillars are inside the bud and thus unattainable. Dormant oil can help a little but this weather spells doom for them. Buds stays closed longer pillars do massive damage. Depressing.