Tent caterpillars

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spartacusaby Hendersonville, NC(Zone 7a) Aug 07, 2006

Do tent caterpillars pose a serious threat to the trees they infest, or are they primarily just an eyesore? Sites I've found online differ in their opinions. We found several tents in small flowering ornamental trees on the property this week, and were able to prune them out. Now see several tents about 2-1/2 stories high in the huge old black walnut: way too high for us personally to either prune or spray. Do we need to pay a professional to get rid of them, or can they be ignored without serious danger to that tree or others on the property? I'm not in love with the black walnut, though it is old and venerable and all that; but do worry about the smaller, younger, more vulnerable trees.

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music2keep Peterstown, WV(Zone 6a) Aug 07, 2006

I thought that they only chose to be in fruit trees. They get in our wild cherry trees every year & yes they are a pest! Our cherries are 50 footers and there is no way that we can get to them. The caterpillers eat the leaves, but the leaves come back out. The trees haven't died yet and we have been here for 9 years. I don't know if that was any help...Good Luck! Altho, you may want to find out if it could be something else. These creatures appear here in the early spring & stay for about 3 weeks. It seems to be a little late in the season.

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StarhillForest Illinois, IL(Zone 5b) Aug 07, 2006

Tent caterpillars can cause serious problems, especially for cherry trees. But what you're seeing now are not tent caterpillars (which appear in the spring in major forks of the tree), they're fall webworms or walnut caterpillars (which appear now at the ends of branches). Because they attack so late in the season, after the foliage has been photosynthesizing all summer, they are not a big problem for the tree. If you can reach them with your hand or a rake, disrupt their webs and pull out what you can. Trimming the affected branches probably causes more damage to the tree than just leaving them alone.

Guy S.

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spartacusaby Hendersonville, NC(Zone 7a) Aug 08, 2006

Thanks, to both of you; these tents are at branch ends, and are on all sorts of trees, not just fruit. As I was driving around the area today, I saw many many of them on all sorts of old growth trees as well as small ones. I'm happy to leave them alone if that's safe for the trees; the ones in the black walnut are far too high for me to reach or even spray!

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