"If it becomes cooler, it'll take longer. If it's warm, it'll be quicker. If it's really dry, they'll wait until the rain softens the ground," he said.

"There's no way you can get rid of them completely," [Mary Ellen Noonan] said. "The gypsy moth is a big problem because it's non-native. Most of the other pests don't cause quite an explosion like the gypsy moths do."

"We hope we can kind of control this," [Charles Moyer] said. "If we don't, we're going to be in pretty dire straights. A lot of us are noticing dead trees from last year."