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Bird cherry ermine moth larvae

 

 We still  remember the large-scale damage by the bird-cherry ermine moth in 2004-2006; the bird-cherries were extensively left without leaves and at the same time swathed in a veil-like drapery. Most trees had leaves the year after the damage, some already in autumn in the same year. After a couple of years with particularly severe damage some bird-cherries have of course died.

 

The butterflies of the ermine moth are small, about one and a half centimetre long, with a modest exterior – forewings white with black dots. In English: Ermine Moths.

 

The larva that voraciously gobble the leaves are cream-coloured, with black dots. They weave their “ermine“ that they swathe themselves in for the pupation.

 

In a few weeks, in early July, the view of a bird-cherry can already be like this.

 

Ermine bird cherry moth veil with larvae and pupae