You Can Turn Your Lights Back On, Bangor: The Moths Are Gone.

By now, most of us are aware of the special kind of Hell Browntail moths can create in this corner of the globe (aren't we so lucky to be one of the only places in the world that deals with these little buggers!?)

When cities warn residents to turn off their outside lights for fear of attracting swarming congregations of these particular pests, you know folks aren't messing around. And for months, folks just like myself have gone without outside illumination at night, just to keep the browntail threat at bay.

Maybe you're ready for a little good news related to this entire situation. Me, too.

So here it is, straight from the City of Bangor Maine's Facebook Page: The threat has finally passed, and we're good to go on with the lights, once again.

"It appears that adult browntail moths have finished breeding and laying their eggs. Residents should be safe to turn on their outdoor lights without fear of attracting adult moths. We encourage residents to still be vigilant about exposure to toxic BTM hairs. While the new generation of caterpillars are not yet shedding hairs, the cacoons of last year's caterpillars are still fresh."

Officials speculated that we would see the highest number of brown-tail moth caterpillars to date, and while we did exceed the numbers we experienced the year before, they say we still came in under that first real problem year of 2021.

The City recommends that if people are in a position to do so, they treat the trees on their property with pesticides to help mitigate the number of moths that hatch in next year's crop.

Get our free mobile app

For more information about the browntail moths and how you can deal with them, click here.

Thankfully, while they may be a huge pain in the butt, they are still small in stature (as far as bugs go.) The opposite is true for these gigantic creepy crawlies!