My Town is in Lockdown!!!

First yellow rose to open by the front door!
So! Those caterpillars are truly a nuisance. A new one, the Australian apple moth, has put my town under quarantine!! No apricots can leave the area nor roses. Well! So much for the bumper crop of apricots being made into chutney. (But maybe... if cooked.... that would be OK?)
The western tussock moth caterpillars have started cocooning all over the street. Neighbors have been out there in Avian-flu latex gloves trying to pick them off - gloved since the little buggers can irritate human skin. Our street has had a few rose bushes completely defoliated by the bugs. One neighbor has resorted to vacumning them off his house there are that many here! Alice has kept them from taking over some of her rose bushes and every time we go out for a walk she squashes a few more from the apricot tree and inspects as much of it as she can for more. I just sit down and wait for her. Take your time, I say!I know the walk will happen. Then we can forget about caterpillars (but for the ones still swinging under the big trees...). Nice things to see. Some pomegrante bushes have put out flowers and Alice admired this best-ever flower border near our house.