The Plague of Caterpillars on the North Side
A swarm of voracious insects descends upon Seattle's northern outskirts, stripping gardens and trees bare while defying all attempts at extermination.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Caterpillars have appeared on the hillside north of the city. The station are ravenous, eating all the shrubbery and trees. They are so numerous that all other sounds are drowned by their noises. Today they moved down into the valley, and are rapidly devouring the nearby gardens. They appeared in this country 17 years ago and destroyed nearly all the ornamental vegetation.
“They are so numerous that all other sounds are drowned by their noises.”
This 1885 account of a cyclical 'plague' of insects recalls the recurring, often overwhelming challenges of maintaining Seattle's urban green spaces against invasive species—a struggle that remains a perennial frustration for city gardeners and arborists today.
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