I haven’t really said anything about the project I’m volunteering with this summer.

It looks like this now:

greenhouse01

The tented trees have been infested with forest tent caterpillars - a local native species well known for its ability to completely defoliate a tree and cover it in great masses of silky mess.  The trees are two species, oak and poplar, and the tent caterpillars will be allowed to have a go at half of them.  The other half will be allowed to grow unmolested - for a time.  Eventually, the tent caterpillars will be removed, and gyspy moth caterpillars (an invasive species which has proven rather damaging) will get their turn at not just the half which had been munched upon by the tent caterpillars, but also the fresh and tasty unmolested trees.  Lucky gypsy moth caterpillars!  There’s a small catch - half of each batch of trees (the pre-eaten and the virginal) will be dosed with a virus known to affect gypsy moth caterpillars (and not in a good way).  The general idea is to figure out if the chemicals produced by the two tree species after defoliation by tent caterpillars has any effect on the virulence of the virus in the gypsy moth caterpillar.  It is believed that this is the case, and we’re looking for some hard numbers to put to it.  In the meantime, there are eggs to hatch, leaves to freeze-dry, and baby caterpillar food to prepare!

catfood