Ghostly Trees

This is not a winter scene, nor has anyone been spraying these trees with silver paint or Halloween cobweb spray. I took the photograph at the National Memorial Arboretum yesterday, where quite a number of trees were similarly affected. The ghostly webbing is all the work of the Small Ermine moth, an insect with a wingspan of less than an inch, which likes to build extensive webs in which to raise its caterpillars – and extensive is the word. I've never seen such a thing, at least not in this country or on such a scale. The official line on it is that the web-coated trees will not suffer any ill effects, even if, like several I saw, they are completely covered. I hope they're right about that; it would be sad if there were arboreal casualties at the National Memorial Arboretum – though I guess they could have their own memorial...
This was my second visit to the arboretum, and it was noticeable how much the trees had grown in the seven years since I was last there. It's maturing nicely, though it would benefit from rather less mowing. My thoughts on the place were much as they were last time, when I wrote this piece.