Klassen, Waldemar

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is one of North America's most devastating forest pests. The species originally evolved in Europe and Asia and has existed there for thousands of years. In either 1868 or 1869, the gypsy moth was accidentally introduced near Boston, MA by E. Leopold Trouvelot. About 10 years after this introduction, the first outbreaks began in Trouvelot's neighborhood and in 1890 the State and Federal Government began their attempts to eradicate the gypsy moth. These attempts ultimately failed and since that time, the range of gypsy moth has continued to spread. Every year, isolated populations are discovered beyond the contiguous range of the gypsy moth but these populations are eradicated or they disappear without intervention. It is inevitable that gypsy moth will continue to expand its range in the future. The gypsy moth is known to feed on on the foliage of hundreds of species of plants in North America but its most common hosts are oaks and aspen. Gypsy moth hosts are located through most of the U.S. but the highest concentrations of host trees are in the southern Appalachian mountains, the Ozark mountaintns, and in the northern Lake States. -- Gypsy moth populations are typically eruptive in North America; in any forest stand densities may fluctuate from near 1 egg mass per ha to over 1,000 per ha. When densities reach very high levels, trees may become completely defoliated. Several successive years of defoliation , along with contributions by other biotic and abiotic stress factors, may ultimately result in tree mortality. In most northeastern forests, less than 20% of the trees in a forest will die but occasionally tree mortality may be very heavy. -- The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has been a key member in funding and researching the safe removal of gypsy moths. One of their various projects is documented in this collection that was collected and written by one of the scientists working on the projects, Dr. Waldemar Klassen. Dr. Klassen is an agricultural entomologist who specializes in Integrated Pest Management (IPM), area-wide pest management, and insect genetics