BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 18, 2022
A continually warming climate likely means the itchy scourge of browntail moths will only grow worse in Maine, according to newly published research by a team from the University of Maine and the State. The moths, which have been present in Maine for more than a century, have long been known to inhabit Maine’s coastal counties. But the moths’ webs last year were found in every county but York, marking the intensification of a multi-year outbreak that started in 2018. The team of UMaine researchers compared data from 23 years modeling how much foliage the pests had eaten with climate data from the same period. They found that rising temperatures in the late summer and early fall, as well as more spring precipitation, all predicted browntail moth population outbreaks.