I enjoy Mickey Rathbun’s column, and found her recent article about gypsy moths interesting, if depressing (“The curse of the gypsy moth,” June 30).
But there is one aspect of this pest that she did not cover, and that I didn’t realize until I woke up with my face red and so swollen that my eyes were slits. My doctor kept wondering how I could have contracted such severe poison ivy without exhibiting any rash on my hands. Neither could I, since I had not weeded with my eyelids.
It transpires that there is a gypsy moth rash, and in some cases, like mine, it requires steroid pills, while in others topical steroid creams can offer some relief. The abundant frass is not the problem — these little darlings irritate us with their hair, which can settle on any surface that we touch or lean on. In my case, I will admit to having spent some hours whacking at the creatures with sticks as they climbed the bark of my beloved oak trees. I have paid dearly for that gruesome pleasure.
My dog’s paws carry the irritation in, and I am finding new rashes nearly every hour. Let’s hope for rain, acorns and fungus in record quantities, and soon. In the meantime, make sure to wash affected areas. I vouch for Fels-Naptha laundry soap, but have learned to take care that the bar of soap doesn’t accumulate material, and aid in the spread.
My advice: Try to ignore the impulse to literally squash that ignoble sound of pattering leaf shards and frass droppings.
Judith Mann
Bechertown