Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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Ed Elswick told me Thursday that he'd spent the foggy days of June 14 and 15 in a funk.

He could not see downtown Roanoke and beyond, as he usually can. He could hardly see past his porch.

"I sat on the couch and bemoaned that fog and said, 'Damn,' " Elswick said at his timber frame home atop Bent Mountain. "It puts you out of the mood to do anything."

Little did he know that while he sulked, the fog may have stimulated a natural pathogen, either viral or fungal, that can kill the caterpillars that produce gypsy moths.

In recent years, the caterpillars have begun to wreak damage on Bent and Poor mountains, where swaths of trees have died.

The creatures are fuzzy and unappetizing, but they possess great appetites, and they are skilled at excretion.

This spring, they appeared in such profusion that Elswick and his neighbors feared the plague would become more ruinous than ever.

Then, post-fog, Elswick surveyed his trees and discovered that some of the caterpillars' pupae, or cocoons, appeared inert.

He also saw clumps of dead caterpillars on some trees.

The sight gave him heart, though at best it will slow the scourge and not contain it.

Elswick, 66, has lived on his mountaintop land since 1984, when people said he was a fool to buy acreage in such a remote spot.

He retired from GE in 1997, but is rarely bored. For example, he mows his land, sprays his trees and refurbishes old cars.

"I have 20 years of work and 10 years of physical ability left," he said.

In his pickup truck, we rolled down a gravel lane and stopped to investigate the caterpillars and cocoons.

He pointed to regrowth on a striped maple and dead caterpillars motionless on nearby leaves and trunks.

He prodded some cocoons. A few occupants writhed, but most did not.

Elswick said in some parts of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the moths' damage has been passing and trees have survived.

It's too soon to say what will happen in Southwest Roanoke County, but at least the annoying creatures appear to be in some sort of retreat.

He said he and Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent Jon Vest shared that conclusion.

The test will come when the moths emerge, lay their eggs and start the cycle anew.

Meanwhile, a man can dream, especially when he is baron of an estate molded mostly with his own hands.

Using his own spelling, he named it Eutopia, and he considers it a perfect place.

Except for the moth problem, it pretty much is.