Western tent caterpillars close up. Iain Myers-Smith.
UBC Science, August 11, 2025: Western tent caterpillars might not be on your mind every year, but during their peak outbreaks, they’re impossible to ignore—hairy larvae wriggling across roads and swarms of caterpillars climbing houses to form yellow silken cocoons.
They’re certainly on the mind of Dr. Judith Myers, professor emerita in the faculties of science and land and food systems, who has spent five decades studying this native moth species and their boom-and-bust population cycles.
In this Q&A, she discusses her journey and findings from a recently published study, including the caterpillars’ surprising resistance to climate change.