An unusual smell coming from a tree trunk puzzles many gardeners. The reason is deep in the wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of a sudden there is a strong smell of vinegar in the garden, right next to the tree, and for no obvious reason. The culprit is hiding in the wood: the caterpillar of the goat moth, up to four inches long and as thick as a finger, with a striking red and yellow color. Week after week it eats its way through the trunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who notice the smell will often find the second clue right on the trunk, which is big round holes in the bark. The culprit is probably the goat moth, a night moth from the family of the wood-boring moths, the Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Saxony<\/a> says. The moth itself is rarely seen, its gray, mottled wings give it perfect camouflage on the bark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the time you only see the infestation through the caterpillar, and the caterpillar is easy to identify. The back is dark red, the underside has a yellow shine and the body, according to the gardening site Mein sch\u00f6ner Garten, looks shiny like it was lacquered. You should still handle it carefully though. It is not poisonous, but it can bite hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of gardeners are surprised by the vinegar smell, but the infestation usually started years before that. The females lay up to 700 eggs in cracks in the bark of trees that are already weak. When the young caterpillars hatch they first eat through the bark as a group, and after that each one goes deeper in on its own, so nobody sees them anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy goat moth infestations often go unnoticed for years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n