Finding the flies lately a bit too friendly? Dan Rowlinson with the Natural Resources Ministry says the flies are serving an important purpose…helping with another problem…the tent caterpillars.
“What it does is that it searches out the cocoon of the forest tent caterpillar and lays its eggs within that cocoon, and is actually the number one cause of the decline of the population,” he said.
Rowlinson says it’s easier to let nature take its course when it comes to the fly issue.
“You know if the folks can just live with them for a short period of time, the result is going to be much better than if we control the flies,” he said. “It will cause that collapse of the forest tent caterpillar outbreak that’s become such a nuisance in the last couple of seasons.”
Rowlinson says there is no truth to an old story that the flies were originally brought in during the 1940s and 50s by then Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn to help control a tent caterpillar problem. It was deemed such an issue that the residue from the insects was making the railway tracks slippery for travel.
The entire interview with Dan Rowlinson is here below….
