Take a stroll down Farningham Crescent in Etobicoke and they will likely flutter by your face.

They are European Gypsy Moths and they are everywhere – slowly destroying the neighbourhood’s cherished canopy.

“Lots of caterpillars, lots of foliage down, and lots of moths,” a resident of the area told CTV News Toronto.

The moths are nearing the end of their lifespan for the season, but the city is already looking ahead to how to manage the invasive insects next year. The bugs have been a problem in Toronto since 2007 and crews are trying to control outbreak populations in an effort to save the urban tree cover.

“Typically the Gypsy Moth doesn’t kill the trees, but what it does is it causes it to weaken, it puts them into a state of decline,” Josh McMeekin, a municipal forest health care inspector, said.

“Given large numbers they can cause quite a bit of damage.”

The larval, or caterpillar, stage of the insect is the most destructive. Egg masses on the trees hatch beginning in early spring and the pests feast on the trees – stripping them as quickly as in a few days.

Their preferred hosts: oak trees.

“Once they experience a high population, and the feeding damage, they don’t regenerate that foliage very well and it takes a big toll on their health,” McMeekin said.

But, the moths are difficult to track in urban areas, and so the city is asking the public to report infestations in their neighbourhoods. Residents are asked to call 311 with that information and beginning next month the city will use that data to establish a treatment plan.

The city uses a variety of tools to combat the moths, including aerial spraying and individual traps, but residents are charged with managing the pests on their own properties.

McMeekin warns that individual traps hung on private trees can end up attracting more moths to the property than the traps will kill. He recommends instead wrapping a sheet of burlap around affected trunks and then disposing of the caterpillars that gather underneath it to be shielded from the sun.

Residents can also scrape the eggs off the bark of their trees and destroy them.

On Farningham Crescent, residents hope the moths move on come the spring.

“A lot of the oak leaves have been eaten away,” another resident of the area told CTV News Toronto. “Some of the trees have been totally defoliated, and what happens then is they die eventually.”