Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290248
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
But the mysterious substance actually was dropping in from a place closer to home - his trees.
Glasheen's cars were being bombarded with inchworm droppings.
There may be a bumper crop of inchworms in Hampton Roads this spring. The green or brown caterpillars eat leaves and eventually become moths.
More people this year have called city halls all over Hampton Roads to ask about the dark brown stuff being deposited in their yards, driveways and cars.
"I've had a whole bunch of calls," said Joe Kertesz, entomologist in Hampton's mosquito-control office.
Glasheen, who has lived in Hampton since 1953, said he can't recall seeing so many droppings on his property. The showering of excrement has been so heavy this spring that one day recently a car of his was stained just minutes after he washed it.
"They looked like black cinders," he said. "They were all over my cars for weeks." Glasheen called the state Air Pollution Control Department's regional office in Virginia Beach last week to get some answers. After talking with an inspector there, Glasheen sent samples of the stuff in a plastic bag to the office.
Dick Craft, the office's assistant director, took one look at it and knew what it was. "Caterpillar droppings," he said. "They look like miniature, miniature rabbit pellets."
Some inchworms are big eaters, consuming their weight in leaves each day.
"The caterpillars are in the trees eating; and, hey, what goes in has to come out," Craft said.
About 1,200 species of inchworms, also known as measuring worms, live in the United States. Spring cankerworms, a green inchworm found in Hampton Roads, are considered the most destructive of all inchworms.
Inchworms can be controlled by putting a sticky substance around tree trunks two to four feet above the ground in the early spring to trap climbing females. Pesticides like diazanon, malathion and Sevin also are used to control the insect.
by CNB