Protect our Village Green and Jubilee Garden trees from defoliation

Protect our Village Green and Jubilee Garden trees from defoliation

This year, again, we are expecting that the spongy moth caterpillars (formerly the LDD moth) will hatch out in force and start to eat the newly emerged leaves on our trees.  The city has provided burlap to wrap trees in city parks (for Rockcliffe, that will be the Village Green and Jubilee Garden).  We need residents to volunteer to help wrap trees and then “adopt” one or more trees.  We don’t know yet when the caterpillars will emerge from their yellow egg masses but it will be in May. 

Volunteer to visit your tree(s) daily in the afternoon between 4 and 7 pm to remove the caterpillars from under the burlap and drop them into a container with water and a few drops of detergent.

We need between 15 and 25 people to save our park trees from defoliation.  If you will volunteer, please email environment@rockcliffepark.ca  and/or come to the Stone Circle at 6:00 pm (18H00) on Monday May 16. 

Additional information on the caterpillar and its control can be found www.ottawa.ca/spongymoth and the city’s burlap wrapping technique are available on the RPRA website under the Environment tab.  For private trees and those on your municipal frontage, a supply of burlap coffee bags, courtesy Bridgehead, will be available on May 16.

And, if the trees on your property still have egg masses, it is not too late to scrape them into a container of detergent and water and let them sit for 24-88 hours and then discard – in the garbage or flush them down the toilet.