Suddenly Green, But Also Black Flies Invade: Spring In Vermont

I swear most of those trees behind the spruces in St. Albans,
Vermont had virtually no green yesterday.
Amazing wha a mild,rainy night can do this time of year. 

 It almost felt like I slept for days or even weeks, not just overnight when I got up early this morning in St. Albans, Vermont. 

The mild overnight rain that had been predicted materialized. After some relatively balmy weather yesterday, the rain went to work on the trees and I'm suddenly in a green landscape. Trees that had been bare yesterday are covered with little green leaves this morning .

Things did change big time overnight. 

The rapid advance of green should continue with today's rain.  Relatively cool air Thursday through Saturday might slow the process a bit, but the warmest weather so far this year coming up next week should advance "foliage season." 

What's not to love about all that? It really is my favorite time of year. 

This being Vermont, though, there's always a drawback. I've seen the first stirrings of the dreaded black flies in the past couple of days. Those little buggers will explode into annoying swarms over the next few days. 

Today's rains will give them a boost as they hatch, and the warm air coming will create clouds of them, I hate to say.  You pray for windy weather during black fly season, because gusts tend to make it harder for them to bother and bite you.  Unfortunately, a good chunk of that upcoming warm spell will have very light winds. 

Black flies do prefer cloudy days, so with sunshine anticipated, that will help.  I'm told black flies don't like light colored clothes like pastel green, or orange or yellow, so consider your fashion choices during black fly season. 

Ah, but we're used to these little devils anyway. Happens every year. The peak of black fly season usually goes from about Mother's Day to Father's Day, with the mosquitoes taking over during that time period. I guess bugs enjoy a Vermont spring, too.

Bug spray with DEET usually eases the problem, at least for me. No biggie.

The only insect I'm truly concerned about this year is gypsy moth caterpillars. You'll remember last year there was a huge outbreak of them which defoliated so much of Vermont's Green Mountains. Although the name of these horrible pests has an ethnic slur, so we'll call them spongy moth caterpillars from here on out. 

There's a good chance they'll be back this year, which makes me nervous since they stripped a hill in back of my house bare last summer.  The caterpillars stopped just short of defoliating my property, and I fear they will nail us this year. I'm sure a lot of other people are a bit worried about this, too.  Not sure what to do about it, but I hope we have a miracle and they don't turn out too bad.

Today's damp weather is what we need, as this weather encourages a fungus that kills spongy caterpillars. But this is just one day of rain. We're in for a long stretch of dry, nice weather. 

Which is what we all love in the springtime.  But like I said, it's Vermont. Even wonderful things have their downside here.