Product Description
In “The Great Gypsy Moth War,” Robert J. Spear presents the untold story behind the importation and release of the gypsy moth in North America and the astonishing series of coincidences that brought the state of Massachusetts to a decade-long war against this tenacious insect. Spear traces the events leading up to the beginning of the war in 1890, notes the causes for its failure, and shows the terrible legacy it left as the precedent for all subsequent insect-eradi… More >>
The release of the gypsy moth in North America prompted a series of circumstances which brought Massachusetts into a decade-long war against the insect, here recounted in The Great Gypsy Moth War: A History Of The First Campaign In Massachusetts To Eradicate The Gypsy Moth, 1890-1901. From the early influences on the campaign when entomologists were fascinated by the alien invader to growing frustrations with its tenacity and a series of political and social interventions which affected the fight, The Great Gypsy Moth War is as much a story of Massachusetts politics as of gypsy moth facts.
Rating: 5 / 5
There was a time when we believed – or perhaps it was just westerners, or even Americans – that we could conquer anything nature had to throw at us. We’ve since found out that is not true. The gypsy moth had a role in that change of thought.
The grand machismo of the men of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Victorian Era, led them to boast of things they had not yet accomplished, yet felt they could. The story of the gypsy moth outbreak in Massachusetts and the men who tried to stop it is full of just such braggadocio.
For Massachusetts residents, the story hits home directly. For those folks interested in birds, the surprise inclusion of Edward Howe Forbush as the street level general in the war on the moth is surprsing and revealing. And for armchair entomologists, well, it doesn’t get any better than this. Descriptions of the moth larvae invading homes, sliding down chimneys and through windows will make the most steadfast skin crawl.
As other reviewers have stated, the author certainly packs every detail possible into the book. But that does not take away from the story for one truly interested in the tale.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a fascinating topic and one of those ‘lost stories’ that, thanks to this book, is no longer lost. Spear’s research is impeccible. Here is my warning: if you want all the gory details about the equipment and the politics and the characters (and you will want to make your own scorecard) then you will love this book (5 stars!). Otherwise, you may find yourself starting to skip some paragraphs, and maybe even some pages, as the bureaucratic skirmishes wax and wane. Overall, Spear has done a good job of weaving together a complicated story and I would recommend this to anyone interested in the control of invasive species or anyone interested in the intersection of science and public policy.
Rating: 3 / 5
I have worked on gypsy moth for over 20 years and thought I had read everything about this species. But I have to say R. J. Spear has done a fabulous historical work in this book. Using personal letters from most of the early workers, he totally puts a new spin on the old published papers. I can’t say enough good things about how well this book is researched! I have no idea how the author found these early communications, but it totally paints a new (and honest) story of the early years. This is a must read for historians on how to do research and really dig for the truth, a must read for entomologists on the front lines of new invasives, a great insight into Massachusetts politics, and a great story for anyone that has known the “pleasures” of this species. OK, so maybe Oprah won’t choose it for her book club because of all the horror stories of marching/munching caterpillars, but this is a really important writing and I can only thank the author for such a wonderful work! Well written, amazingly researched, I only wish I could give it 6 stars! It makes me want to read anything else this author researches and writes. To Mr. Spear, I have no idea where you came from, or how you saw through the old published “facts”, but thank you for a really valuable look into the early years of entomology. Please write more.
Rating: 5 / 5
We may never know the full story behind THE GREAT GYPSY MOTH WAR that ended up being fought in eastern Massachusetts during the years 1890-1901. Even our oldest living World War I veterans were too young to tell all on their own. It’d come down to drawing on the same sources author Robert J Spear found: writings from the time. These writings were in the forms of [1] eyewitness accounts; and [2] “the gypsy moth” report. Moth fieldwork director Edward Forbush and economic entomologist Charles Fernald wrote the report in 1896. And that report, as the official spin, has long been the more important of the two sources. For it influenced later private and public first-responses to nuke problem bugs `til they glowed.
In the late 1860s, American businessmen had wanted to set up an American silk industry. American scientists had wanted to prove science solved all. And some bug scientists had thought the only good bug was a dead one, except for honeybees, insects from which red dye and shellac were respectively made, lady beetles, and silkworms. One visiting scientist in particular, E Leopold Trouvelot, had tried to bring business and science together, by looking for a good silk-making worm. He considered that of the gypsy moth. These imported moths probably escaped, during the windy spring of 1869, from holes in the nettings with which he covered his back yard, open air moth study in Medford.
Massachusetts had been a state of white pine in the south and mixed fir and spruce in the north. But the state’s softwoods had been more than 80% cleared, for farming or for commercial logging. Hardwoods had grown up in some places. The most common hardwood had become the thicker-barked, shade- and poor soil-tolerant, more fire-resistant oak. And that was the gypsy moth’s favorite food, along with the state’s orchard fruits and field crops. So gypsy moths were able to eat their way to plague proportions, what with mild winters killing very few of their eggs and what with no natural controls, such as native diseases, enemies and parasites.
Citizens couldn’t stop the moths from eating almost everything green in sight. So legislators and scientists got together to pay for and set up an all-out bug war. It became the model for all other later anti-insect campaigns. How could this be since this first “eradication” fell way far short of its goal of wiping out the gypsy moth? The scientific community closed ranks with the report’s authors, who blamed the state legislature for stopping funding and citizens for getting in the way. And yet eradication by hazardous materials was as costly and dangerous as it was unsuccessful. For example, each gypsy moth caterpillar needed 12 times the poisonous dose fatal to an adult human. That meant chemically drenched neighborhoods, contaminated soil and water supply, damaged green things, dead honeybees, and sick people.
Despite all this, the gypsy moth made Massachusetts and the rest of the United States its new home. It learned how to become part of the American woodwork. In comparison and according to the author, we may have learned nothing other than the only way to stop problem insects is disease. For in 1989 the fungus Entomophaga maimaiga fought and won the good fight against gypsy moths trying to take over Connecticut.
Rating: 5 / 5