An expert in Connecticut identified the attackers as black-dotted brown moths.
Kamal Gandhi, a professor of forest entomology in UGA's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, says entomologists in Athens and other eastern cities can't remember ever seeing so many of them.
Gandhi says homeowners and landowners first began asking her about the caterpillars last year.
Until now, the moth wasn't considered a pest. But Gandhi says an outbreak in the university's Whitehall Forest in Athens-Clarke County defoliated a big white oak in four days. Gandhi says the caterpillars also are in Madison, Oglethorpe and Oconee counties and possibly in Barrow and Gwinnett counties.
Reports have been coming in to AccessNorthGa.com all day from people reporting infestations of the caterpillars in Dawson, Hall, and Lumpkin counties, among others.
Christina Hamby, who lives in East Hall says they are "really bad. They are all over my driveway, my walkway and they are even getting into my garage. I walk outside with an umbrella because I'm afraid they are going to fall down on me. They're horrible!"
Hamby and others say they are worse at night and early in the morning, not so visible during the daylight hours.
"They literally sound like they are raining at night where there are so many crawling all over each other and falling out of the trees," Hamby said.
Ken McCrary said "I killed a caterpillar in my driveway yesterday (Tuesday) that looked just like the one in the picture (on accessnorthga.com)" and Ridge Rairigh said "These caterpillars are all over my oak trees on my property in Dahlonega. It's a mess."
Geneva Anderson said "We have those critters on our land. We live in Dawsonville...on Auraria Road."
Alice Brock lives in the Sardis/Cool Springs area of Hall County and says "Our oaks have been severly damaged by the worms. We are trying seven dust, but may try other chemicals. Their feces from the trees are all over our cars."
University of Georgia scientists say the best way to combat them and keep them off the leaves of your trees is to put burlap bands on the trunks of the trees. For instructions on how to make the bands, click on the link below.
(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)
Photo courtesy University of Georgia.
Caterpillar-damaged leaf. (Picture courtesy Alice Brock)
Photo courtesy Alice Brock.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/5/238424