WSB

I don't know what it is like where you live (or, as foresters from the lake states like to say, "in your neck of the woods"), but in southern Utah we are experiencing a Western Spruce Budworm (WSB, Choristoneura occidentalis) epidemic. The adult is a moth, but the growing budworm is, well, a caterpillar. The caterpillar feeds on the new leaves of spruce, fir, and Douglas fir. In our area, Douglas fir have been particularly hard hit, and many of them are partially defoliated. But, the reason I mention this now is that I was working in an infested stand last week. I was alone and it was quiet. As I worked, I could hear a steady pit-pat like rain on the forest floor. This being southern Utah the sky was, of course, clear, and there was no rain in the forecast. Instead, it was raining frass—the poop of the caterpillar.