The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has identified infestations of spongy moth in seven counties across North Carolina that it anticipates treating in 2026.  

Residents within the impacted areas were notified by mail in February about these infestations as well as proposed treatments. Informational sessions will be held within these communities in March to collect public comments for consideration.

From bears and bobcats to eagles and elk, 22,893 species have been documented so far in Great Smoky Mountains National Park — and nearly half of them are insects. Becky Nichols, the park’s long-time entomologist, has dedicated her career to learning about and protecting lifeforms like bees, wasps, moths and butterflies. 

As a child in rural Washington state, Nichols gravitated toward nature and animals of all sorts. She knew from a young age that she wanted a career related to the environment. 

What initially draws my eyes to the tall, stalky plant growing near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the round, green bulge in a stem near its crown. Called galls, such growths are often caused by insects like wasps and flies, whose larvae use them as safe places to feed and grow. I’m excited to show it to 2025 Steve Kemp writer and illustrator in residence Jim and Leslie Costa, who are leading a Smokies Life Branch Out event exploring the diversity of insects found in the area.

Smokies Life announced Jim and Leslie Costa as the recipients of its 2025 Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency. During their residency, the North Carolina-based couple plans to continue work already underway to write and illustrate a forthcoming field guide to the Smokies insects to be published by Smokies Life. 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the crown jewel of the Southern Appalachians, an ancient landscape teeming with life — including what naturalist and explorer William Bartram in 1791 called “insects of infinite variety,” many of them “admirably beautiful.” Some 200 years later, naturalist E. O. Wilson would describe them as the “little things that run the world.” 

Residents of western Haywood County and eastern Jackson County will have the chance to learn about the Spongy Moth infestation that has hit several areas of the region, as well as what the N.C. Department of Agriculture plans on doing about the problem. 

NC State Extension Master Gardener volunteers are available to answer questions about lawns, vegetables, flowers, trees and ornamental plants; disease, insect, weed or wildlife problems; soils (including soil test results) and fertilizers; freeze and frost damage; and cultural and chemical solutions to pest problems. 

Treatments for spongy moth (formerly known as the gypsy moth) infestations in several areas across North Carolina will start as early as June 7 and could continue through June 20, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

For many people who grew up in the eastern United States, the soft yellow blink of fireflies drifting over dusky fields and lawns is synonymous with summer, a nostalgic symbol of warmth and childhood. But few would guess that the common eastern firefly (Photinus pyralis) is one of more than two thousand firefly species worldwide. 

During the summer of 2011, billions of cicada eggs hatched inside tree twigs across the Southeast. The hatchlings, called nymphs, dropped down and burrowed into the ground, where they’ve been sucking on tree roots ever since.