It's raining insect poop out here!

Outdoors in Maine Today ^ | August 03, 2005 | Carey Kish

[Cowman]

August 03, 2005 It's raining insect poop out here! It was literally raining insect poop along much of the Grafton Loop Trail this weekend.

Honest!

Hiking up Puzzle Mountain on Saturday I stopped to rest. And that's when I first heard it.

The sound of rain.

But it couldn't be because the sun was out and the sky was bright blue.

I waited, listened some more, looked up, and realized that what I was hearing were insects eating away the leaves of the hardwood trees and dropping poop all over the place, and occasionally dropping themselves onto the forest floor.

I couldn't identify the beasty little critters who were making all the racket, but I finally did get a photo of one.

The Saddled Prominent caterpillar caught on a blue blaze along the Grafton Loop Trail.

Charlene Donahue, an entomologist with the Maine Forest Service, knew what it was right away when I called her yesterday: The Saddled Prominent.

According to Donahue, the Saddled Prominent is native to Maine and feeds on hardwood leaves, primarily beech, maple and oak. There's a surge in population every 8 years or so affecting mostly western Maine.

She couldn't say exactly what caused the periodic uptick in numbers, but figured weather might be a factor. The current outbreak is considered mild and should last another season or so before dying out again.

So the next time you hear rain in the woods and the sun is out, it might just be the Saddled Prominent. Who knew?

Now I'm gonna go clean the caterpillar crap off my backpack, thank you very much.

Posted by Carey Kish at 07:57 AM

[Cowman]

I always wondered why there were so many brown haired people from Maine

[sionnsar]

Vietnam's yellow rain?

[Cowman]

Vietnam's yellow rain?

I don't know about Vietnam but the next time I go to Kitahdin I'm taking an umbrella.

[armymarinemom]

This is just what I wanted to read after having our septic tank emptied this morning. Just wait till hubby comes home ans asks how my day was.

[reagan_fanatic]

Perhaps one of the ingredients in the leaves is Olestra.

[Cowman]

This is just what I wanted to read after having our septic tank emptied this morning. Just wait till hubby comes home ans asks how my day was

You can just tell him that your day stunk.

[flada]

I remember growing up in northern Minnesota. I think it was the summer of 1980 when the forest tent caterpillars reached the peak of their cycle. The damned things were so thick that their silk was hanging everywhere. You couldn't take a step without stepping on them. The road in front of our house was practically carpetted with them.

It was almost like living in some kind of Hitchcock novel.

[Dallas59]

[MARTIAL MONK]

Thank God cows don't fly.

[pankot]

Bugs? Sounds more like the Senate Democrats.

[Deguello]

Carey Kish sounds like a damn tourist.

Would he/she like to know about spit beetles in Texas?

[Willie Green]

So the next time you hear rain in the woods and the sun is out, it might just be the Saddled Prominent. Who knew?

Well I never heard of the "saddled prominent" before.
But gypsy moths are capable of producing a downpour of crap as well.