Where do you live?  I'm guessing you are either in SW lower MI or maybe around Muskegon?  First, please google MSU Gypsy Moth.  The website has a bunch of information that will be relevant to you.  Check out "Dealing with GM around your home", the write-up about the two pathogens that kill GM larvae (caterpillars), scraping egg mases, using burlap bands, etc.  

Most of lower MI has gone thru a GM outbreak in the past few years.  It started in 2019 in the NE, then really blew up in 2020-2022.  Most areas saw their populations collapse in 2022 or 2023. THe SW region is about 2 years behind - you may have lots of GM again next year.  

The larvae are developing relatively quickly this summer.  Between now and about July 4th, they will finish feeding, spin a reddish-brown cocoon and pupate in there for about 2 weeks. Then the moths come out.  Dont worry about controlling the moths - they dont feed and each moth only lives a few days.  

Each female moth (white wings) lays an egg mass - you will see those on trees and probably other objects too. Any egg mass you can reach can be scraped into a bucket with soapy water and soaked for 2-3 days.  You can do this the rest of the  summer, fall and winter. 

For now.... You can use a high pressure nozzle on a garden hose to blow larvae off the tree trunks, your house etc.  Water alone may not kill them but if you step on them, that ought to do it.  

You can knock larvae into a bucket of soapy water and let them soak a day or two - that will kill them.

You can check into hiring an arborist to spray insecticide up into the canopy of the trees where the larvae are feeding (mostly at night).  That's not cheap and there are often problems with drift, non-target effects, etc. but it can certainly makes things more pleasant. 

You could try using AceCaps - they are a general use product so you can buy and apply them without being a certified pesticide applicator.  You can even order them from Amazon.  They are like a vitamin capsule.  You drill a hole thru the bark and just into the sapwood of the trees, then shove in a capsule.  Then you go up and over, do it again and so forth.  All the directions are on the label.  

For next year, you might consider hiring an arborist to spray Bt up into the canopy of the trees around your home.  Bt is a bacteria that only affects caterpillars and only if they feed on treated leaves.  It's safe for humans, pets, birds, other insects, etc.  YOu can buy it yourself but if you dont get it up onto the leaves in the canopies of trees, it wont work.  There is a good bulletin about Bt on the MSU GM website that should be useful. 

HOpe that helps.

Deb