Tree pest to get renamed; experts seek suggestions

why would an entomological society bother with renaming a species' nickname? they shouldn't recognize the 'gypsy moth' term to begin with.

Will ask my Romanian friend if she and her family are offended. Pretty sure I already know the answer. That would be no.

Some people look to the past and say "We can do better" others look to the past and hold on to it like a security blanket and want to be offended that the future means they need to evolve.

Let's agree to evolve, shall we?

Watertown moths?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra

Japanese Beetle, Greek Salad, Chinese Junk, Scotch & Soda and many many more are just common names for objects or even families of objects. It just so happens that these have a name of a country or a population of a country embedded in the name or in some case nickname or even abbreviation.

Are they all pejorative?? -- well I suppose its in the mind of the beholder. In many cases - they are simply descriptive shorthand with an unknown heritage of the names geographic component.

For example -- Scotch and Soda -- is really shorthand for a drink combining Scotch Whiskey with carbonated water. In Scotland -- you don't ask for Scotch -- you ask for Whiskey because that is the only kind of Whiskey they make in Scotland [a mostly malted barley whiskey].

On the other hand If you go into a bar in Louisville, KY and ask for a Whiskey and Soda -- you wouldn't get Scotch you would most likely get Bourbon [a mostly corn whiskey]. Bourbon of course ultimately connects with the Royal Family of France although the exact coupling with the whiskey is unknown.

What about Dutch Elm Disease??? probably the closest analog to the Gypsy Moth.
It is not a disease native to the Netherlands, nor is it a disease only affecting Dutch Elms. The name is tied to the fact that while it probably has been around for thousands of years -- it was first identified when Elms started succumbing in large numbers in the Netherlands
as Wikipedia states:

Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into America and Europe, where it has devastated native populations of elms that did not have resistance to the disease...The name "Dutch elm disease" refers to its identification in 1921 and later in the Netherlands by Dutch phytopathologists Bea Schwarz and Christine Buisman, who both worked with Professor Johanna Westerdijk...The disease affects species in the genera Ulmus and Zelkova; therefore it is not specific to the Dutch elm hybrid.

So why not call it Schwarz Elm Disease???
well Prof Schwarz got a tree named after her that is mildly resistant [although apparently doesn't look like much compared to a "real Elm"] ---

The elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Bea Schwarz' was cloned (as No. 62) at Wageningen in the Netherlands, by the elm disease committee, from a selection of Ulmus minor found in France in 1939.

We apparently have one growing in the Arnold Arboretum,

[US. Acc. nos. 151–61, 276–62]