Sick caterpillars, Home

Over the past few days, I've begun to notice something that seemed almost too good to be true: the local Gypsy Moths appeared to be ailing and, in many cases, succumbing to some sort of Lymantria dispar plague. The eternal rain of frass—OK, caterpillar poop—had lessened from steady precipitation to lighter showers and while some trees were truly skeletons, most of the others still had a healthy complement of leaves. The defoliators were slowing down, and as I watched the pandemic start to take shape, I noticed a number of caterpillars rested in a Vee position—a sign of a fatal infection by the Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus—while others hung head-down and lifeless, the hallmark of the Entomophaga maimaiga fungus. Here's the handiwork of both pathogens, and if they can kick in and reduce the caterpillar population explosion, well, that's a plague I can heartily endorse.