PORTLAND (AP) – The browntail moth population in southern Maine has apparently collapsed, giving people a respite from the rash-spreading insects.

The cold and damp spring is thought to have caused the population to plummet in the Casco Bay region, where infestations have caused health problems for several years, said Charlene Donahue, an entomologist with the Maine Forest Service.

The moths can cause poison ivy-like skin rashes when people are exposed to the moths’ hairs. They’ve also been known to defoliate hardwood trees and shrubs.

Just a few months ago, state officials were warning that residents might want to brace themselves for a heavy browntail season. But Donahue now theorizes that the cool and wet spring brought out parasites and fungi that are harmful to browntails.

It’s unknown if the population collapse will be temporary, but in coastal communities like Brunswick, Harpswell and Freeport, it’s a welcome respite.

“Seeing it right now, there’s been fewer caterpillars out there, less hairs and less people calling us with rashes,” Donahue said.

Dick Bradbury, the state entomologist until his retirement in May, spent years working on controlling the browntail population, according to the USDA Forest Service. He enlisted the Forest Service to use predatory beetles and research to develop population controls, and got chemical companies to list the moth on their pesticide labels.

The USDA Forest Service says the browntail moth was accidentally brought to the United States from Europe more than a century ago. The insect spread and at its height it covered nearly 60,000 square miles in the Northeast and eastern Canada, where it was known to defoliate late tracts of hardwood forests.

But populations have slowly declined, and the insect today is rarely found outside of Casco Bay and Cape Cod in Massachusetts.