{"id":7667,"date":"2016-07-18T11:12:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T15:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=7667"},"modified":"2016-07-18T11:12:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T15:12:58","slug":"gypsy-moth-damage-seen-from-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2016\/07\/gypsy-moth-damage-seen-from-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Gypsy moth damage seen from satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA&#8217;s Earth Observatory posted a striking pair of pictures recently showing the massive defoliation caused by gypsy moth caterpillars in Rhode Island. \u00a0It&#8217;s amazing to me how much damage the caterpillars were able to do to the tree canopy there in just a month. \u00a0You can read about it and see the pictures in more detail at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/IOTD\/view.php?id=88370\">https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/IOTD\/view.php?id=88370<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The article describes the special importance of the dry weather they are having this year in affecting the caterpillars: \u00a0&#8220;Dry weather also can weaken certain pathogens that normally keep the caterpillars in check. \u201cThis 2016 outbreak is likely due to two successive dry springs\u2014conditions not conducive to the growth and spread of two naturally occurring bio-controls,\u201d explained Paul Ricard, the forest health program coordinator for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. \u201cThe <em>Entomophaga maimaiga<\/em> fungus and <em>Nuclepolyhedrosis<\/em> virus have historically kept the gypsy moth population in check.\u201d Indeed, much of the Northeast was in <a href=\"https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/Home\/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?northeast\">moderate or severe drought<\/a> in July 2016, according the U.S. Drought Monitor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7668\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7668\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2016\/07\/gypsymoth_tmo_2016178.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7668\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2016\/07\/gypsymoth_tmo_2016178-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Source; NASA\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2016\/07\/gypsymoth_tmo_2016178-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2016\/07\/gypsymoth_tmo_2016178-207x138.jpg 207w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2016\/07\/gypsymoth_tmo_2016178.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7668\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source; NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA&#8217;s Earth Observatory posted a striking pair of pictures recently showing the massive defoliation caused by gypsy moth caterpillars in Rhode Island. \u00a0It&#8217;s amazing to me how much damage the caterpillars were able to do to the tree canopy there in just a month. \u00a0You can read about it and see the pictures in more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":7668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-forests","category-interesting-weather-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7669,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667\/revisions\/7669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}