TENT CATERPILLAR INFESTATION

As tent caterpillars thrive in and around the national capital in 2017, Ottawa naturalist Dan Brunton describes an infestation across the Prairies of “biblical” proportions.
“I just completed a drive from Ottawa to Victoria … and was absolutely blown away by the impact of tent caterpillar populations across southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan,” Brunton said.
The deciduous trees along the TCH (except Manitoba maple) were absolutely bare,” he wrote. “The weather was lousy and cool for the drive so at first I thought the bare trees might be some bizarre expression of late spring. I soon realized, however, it was the worst stripping of leaves by tent caterpillars I’ve ever witnessed.”