An outbreak of forest tent caterpillars in Aroostook County has damaged sugar maples used for syrup production.
Michael Parisio, a forest entomologist with the Maine Forest Service, says defoliated trees are on the Quebec border near St. Aurelie.
And while most trees can handle a couple years of defoliation, he says, it's a bigger stressor for active sugaring trees.
"We do probably plan to go out and monitor for egg masses over the winter months to get a sense of what next year's population might look like," he says.
Forest tent caterpillars are not invasive, and Parisio says the outbreak is otherwise following a normal trajectory.
