Carbon County wants to keep gypsy moth caterpillars at bay in 2016.

Last year, gypsy moths made a comeback, and the little insects brought their big appetites, munching on trees and shrubs and eating their way through the county and state.Because of this, Carbon County is participating in the state suppression program, which included spraying 774 acres of county and privately owned property at a cost of $26 per acre. Carbon was the only county to participate in the 2015 program.On Thursday, the commissioners voted to enter into an agreement to participate in the 2016 Gypsy Moth Suppression Program through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry, Division of Forest Pest Management.A total of 1,582 acres throughout the county will be sprayed between late April and early June at a cost of $54 per acre.The treatment will include bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, formally known as Bt insecticide, being sprayed by aircraft over the infested forests.Of the property sprayed, 1,077 acres will be located around Mauch Chunk Lake Park at a cost to the county of $58,158.The remaining $27,270 will be split among private residents who qualified to be part of the spraying. These properties had to have a minimum of 250 gypsy moth egg masses per acre and contain certain types of trees.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the reason for the sharp increase in cost per acre is because there is no state funding earmarked for it.Commissioner William O'Gurek added that the state warned the county that the cost would rise significantly last year, and because of this, a number of private property owners who qualified for the spraying backed out this year.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard suggested that the county should look into private contractors who do the same type of spraying in the future if the gypsy moths continue past the 2016 season. Gypsy moths are cyclical and may not be seen in such numbers beyond this year.Nothstein said that the county chose to expand the area sprayed around the lake because enough egg masses were discovered and it was evident that the spraying helped last year."You could see the difference," Nothstein said, noting that on the north side of the road at Mauch Chunk Lake, where it wasn't sprayed, the trees were really stripped."With people coming out to the lake, we wanted to do more and we want to save our trees," Gerhard added.The county began looking at participating in the program in mid-2014, when David Horvath, director of Mauch Chunk Lake Park and the person in charge of the gypsy moth program, reported that park crews identified an "outbreak population" of gypsy moths at the lake in late spring. Before that, the county hadn't participated in the suppression program since 2009.Crews noticed defoliation on the south side of the lake along the north face of the mountain, extending from the power lines to roughly around the dam area.At the time, Horvath found that areas around Mauch Chunk Lake Park had egg masses near 1,700 per acre.About the pestThe gypsy moth, or Lymantria dispar, has been a pest to the northeastern United States since being introduced from Europe to Massachusetts in 1869, DCNR reports.The bug was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 1932, when it was found living in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.It is typically known to homeowners in its larval stage as a caterpillar.During the bug's life cycle, a female lays 400 to 600 eggs, which hatch in late April.Caterpillars feed on foliage as they mature. Favored species include apple, aspen, basswood, beech, birches, box elder, hawthorn, larch, oaks, willows and witch hazel trees.By late June or early July, caterpillars burrow into tree trunks and create pupas, where they will remain for about two weeks. They emerge as adults by late July.