by Roland D. Hallee

It’s amazing how one day you are oblivious of certain things, and the next day. you learn how a small, previously obscure caterpillar is now raping the landscape along the southern Maine coastline, and moving swiftly into the central part of the state.

The browntail moth caterpillar falls into that category. It not only poses a health problem for trees and insects, but it can also make humans uncomfortable.

browntail moth caterpillar

Last fall, Maine Forest Service entomologist Charlene Donahue wanted to see just how much damage browntail moth caterpillars were causing by chomping on the leaves of hardwood trees and shrubs. So, she did an aerial survey.
“In September, when the little teenie weenie caterpillars that are about a twelfth of an inch long were feeding, and mapped over 11,000 acres of feeding damage,” she says.

That means when they mature, and reach a size of about two inches in length, they are going on a mission to defoliate everything in sight. Donahue says most browntail moths are centered in the Topsham, Brunswick and Bowdoinham areas of the state, but the infestation has expanded. It has now been reported in the central Maine area from Waterville-Winslow to Lewiston-Auburn and even further south to Kittery.

And while that’s bad news for trees like oaks and apples, it’s also bad news for people because the caterpillars shed hair that can cause poison ivy-like rashes and breathing problems if ingested.

“The hairs can last for a year or 2-3 years, so people — even if the browntail moth go away — they go and rake or work in the brush in a place that’s been infested in the past, you can still end up with a rash,” Donahue says.

The severity of this year’s infestation is prompting the town of Cumberland to consider spraying pesticide in an area of town most affected, Cumberland Foreside.

Apparently, this is something that happens every year and the Cumberland Town Council tries to be pro-active.

According to Council chairman Peter Bingham, “Cumberland has considered spraying in the past, but abandoned the plan after too many homeowners opted out. The town held a workshop recently to help determine whether to spray this time around.”

Donahue says using pesticides would provide relief for people in the area, but it won’t get rid of browntail moth entirely. They’re invasive, from Europe, and don’t have natural predators.

According to biologists, the caterpillar and moth have been around these parts for well over 100 years. See what I meant when I said it all of a sudden makes news.

The only thing that seems to slow down browntail moths is a fungal disease, which hasn’t been as prevalent in recent years.

Donahue says to avoid exposure, mow the lawn when it’s wet. Don’t hang laundry outside where it can pick up the caterpillar’s hairs. And wear long sleeves and pants if you’re in an infested area.

by  Peter Cates

My Favorite Overtures

Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Capitol, G 7251, mono edition of LP also released in stereo, recorded 1961.

The Overtures contained herein are Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra and La Cambiale di Matrimonio – itself composed when he was 18; Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Fair Melusina; and Berlioz’s Corsaire. Gazza Ladra, translated as Thieving Magpie, is based on a story in which a servant girl is charged with stealing a silver spoon. She is caught between a rock and a hard place because she is hiding her father who is a deserter while the real thief is a magpie.

Thomas Beecham

The Corsaire Overture was written by Berlioz in a tower on a cliff in Nice, was initially titled Le Corsaire Rouge because the composer really liked the American novel Red Rover by James Fenimore Cooper, but was shortened to just Corsaire when he feared confusion of the many listeners not particularly well read. The novel also had one scene depicting its own tower on a cliff, inspiring some speculation as to why Berlioz might have sought and found such a place on his vacation trip to Nice.

The performances are very good but more recent performances with even better sound exist that are also very good. Finally, Overtures by these three figures and others such as Dvorak, Brahms, Suppe, etc., are a wonderful source of listening, like the composers and pieces I have recommended in previous columns, for beginning one’s classical collection. And for anyone who does want the above LP, vinyl and cassette copies are listed on Amazon for under ten bucks.

The Best of Booker T. and the MG’s

Atlantic- 7 81281-2, CD, released 1984.

The classic Memphis record label Stax had the gifted personnel of Booker T. and the MGs as its house band for most of the 60’s. Organist Booker T. Jones, 1944; guitarist Steve Cropper, 1941; bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, 1941-2012; and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. provided top notch support for such artists as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas and her father Rufus, Albert King and Bonnie and Delaney.

Booker T. and the MGs

With the two whites, Cropper and Dunn, it was one of the very first racially mixed musical groups in the U.S. as of 1962 when they released their only megahit, Green Onions. This selection and 15 others comprise the CD above, some of the most well-honed, nuanced and funky instrumentals that make for excellent background music and focused listening.
Detroit’s Motown label has an outdoor marquee reading, “Hitsville USA,” while Stax in Memphis has “Soulsville, USA.” Prices for the CD on Amazon start with a very exorbitant one penny.

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, if our faithful readers aren’t off to the stores, somewhere, and Christmas shopping, hopefully they are taking time to read about your suggestions this week. Oh, and while I’m on the subject of our faithful readers, you may have no idea how many of our readers are truly faithful. Wow, readers that I do not know recognize my glasses, I guess, and that you, WALLS, have a writer. Yes, each of them that tells how much they enjoy you are really giving us a ‘gift for all seasons’, right?

You, WALLS, know that Lew and I hope that our gifts inspire our great-grandchildren to learn and have fun, at the same time, as we fill all their parent’s mailboxes with National Geographic for Little Kids and for Kids (KIDS receive the issues that are published for seven years old and ‘up’). We are told our beloved kids really enjoy both editions together and the ‘more grown up great-grandkids’ receive the Smithsonian Magazine…and so do we! What an interesting read that affords us! Yes, WALLS, no one is ever too young or too old to learn!

Adults? Well, we do that the easy way, too. You see, we have a cancer-free great-grandson who was diagnosed at five years old and was sent to St. Jude’s by Seattle Children’s Hospital. What a wonderful research hospital that has to be, as our now grown up 17 year old was schooled for 12 years while at St. Jude’s and he only lost one year of school while there.

Equally, dear to us is his original doctor who had retired, but saw our great-grandson at his home, since a loving mom felt that treating her son for the flu was not what he needed. Yes, that doctor said he had to go to Seattle Children’s immediately and, it just happened that the world’s outstanding authority on Wilm’s Cancer was at St. Jude’s.

Some of you faithful readers maybe saw our great-grandson on Keeping Pace when he visited Maine from Bellingham, Washington. Former Town Manager John Doucette interviewed our handsome cancer-cured grandson and you faithful readers learned why Make a Wish is so important for giving, too.

Do you remember Danny Thomas, who brought fun, laughter and real lessons to everyone in the family once a week? His daughter, Marlo Thomas, promotes St. Jude’s as her dad’s dream. Well, Danny’s dream made our dream come true, too, so now WALLS, you can write the letter to Marlo and tell her of all the Ouilette family members’ Christmas gift that has been sent to St. Jude’s every year since Danny’s dream became ours, as well.

Many thanks for the cards that you send us, Marlo, so that we can send to those at St. Jude’s and wish them wellness in their respecdtive future, Marlo and all that work day and night to make that wellness a reality……her dad’s dream.

So, now, faithful readers, we of WALLS will be back next week and wish you a very happy holiday season!