GRAND FALLS, N.B. –
New Brunswick’s maple syrup industry is considering using an insecticide to kill off forest tent caterpillars that have chewed through a portion of the province’s northwestern woodlands this summer.
The province’s Department of Natural Resources is estimating that green, fuzzy caterpillars have caused the defoliation of about 120 square kilometres of forests on or near male syrup farms.
Producers are fearful the result will be unhealthy trees — and lower production of syrup in next spring’s runoff, Frederick Dion, president of the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association, said in an interview earlier this week.
“You walk through the forest and you hear the sounds of millions of those caterpillars eating the leaves and it’s disastrous when you see it,” said Dion, who in addition to his volunteer role at the association runs his own maple syrup operation.