What To Do If You See These Disgusting Blobs on NY Trees
If you see these pukey yellowish-brown blobs on trees in New York forests, run.
Okay, no, not really. They don't pose any threat to humans. But they will hatch into something repulsive and dangerous to the environment.
The blobs are gypsy moth larvae. Or, excuse me... "spongy moth" larvae. The name "gypsy moth" has been canceled for not being politically correct. You can read more about that here.
Regardless of how you feel about that, one thing we can all agree on: Moths are the worst. They spend all night smashing their thorax against a lightbulb, but then they go to sleep when the ultra-bright sun comes out. How much sense does that make? They're a bunch of idiots.
Plus, some of them grow to unreasonable sizes. I've seen moths with wingspans the size of my fist. Truly horrifying. It's no wonder Mothra was such a formidable foe to Godzilla.
And you can't kill them, because if you smash them against the wall, it smears this nasty "moth dust" all over the place, so then you gotta clean THAT up.
But, I digress. The formerly-known-as gypsy moth is an invasive species, which means it's REALLY not welcome here. In a Facebook post, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said you can do your part by scraping the larvae off trees into a container of dish detergent, which will essentially destroy them. My gut instinct would be to burn the entire tree down, but I guess that doesn't do any favors for the environment either.
To learn more about the spongy moth and what you can do about it, visit this NYS DEC link.