ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) - You may remember the infestation of an invasive species known as spongy moth a few summers back. Although the temperatures are starting to cool off, the moths are now laying their eggs. According to Robert Cole, who is a forester with the NYS DEC, the spongy moth is a non-native insect from France that are known to feed on the leaves of a large variety of trees. The fall and winter seasons are the times that we see the egg masses on trees. If not taken care of, these masses, which contain about 600 to 700 eggs, will hatch come the springtime. “In the spring when it starts warming up beginning of April mid April the sponge month eggs will hatch and they come out is very tiny caterpillars and then people usually start seeing that late April beginning of May when they’re a little bit longer, but they’re still really dark colored,” Cole says. After a few months, the caterpillars will begin to grow and start eating the leaves on trees, which in the long run could end up killing them.  “All of that feeding, the tree can’t produce the carbohydrates it’s that it needs you know like store over the winter and then put out a new flesh of leaves in the spring so when it’s not making all that energy, it still needs to put leaves out so then it’s using all that reserved and it has to do that you know two or three years in a row of defoliation,” says Cole. The good news is if you find the spongy moth in your backyard, there are ways to help control them. While still in their egg stage, you can scrap the eggs off the trees. If you miss that life stage and they have already hatched, there are still ways to control them.  “We do recommend using sticky bands early in the season when the caterpillars are crawling up and down and then later in the season, switching over to that burlap wrapped burlap so that they can just keep in there,” Cole says. The DEC also asks for people to review the firewood policy to prevent the spread of these potential egg masses because left untreated, they could end up spreading to new places. Click here to learn more about the spongy moth.