They are literally destroying my trees. The damage is bad enough but their poop is everywhere. The cats stick to my puppies and they carry them inside. Have always had them but never, ever to this extint. Is my neighborhood the only one dealing with this plague? I have fruitless mulberry and pecan trees and they are on all of my plants. Never had them on the plants before just the trees.
Web worms/tent worms/catepillars whatever...
bag worms get on all pecan trees here.. ik..
Are you also having the web worms?
They have really been bad in our area this year. I caught most before they did too much damage here. But I was cutting back some plants in the yard this afternoon and noticed they were back!! They were only about a half inch long and they had their web on the top of two of my Oak Leaf Hydrangeas. I cut them out took them to the yard cart and sprayed them before dropping them in. Then I noticed some young Red Tip Photinias that have the tops eaten away! Guess I better get back out front and check my Bleeding Heart again they almost stripped it earlier in the year.
Sheila, my mom lives in the 820/30 area & she said they can't hardly walk out of their house without worms, falling on them!
I noticed 2 bags on my mulberry this wk. Never saw them in my yard b4!
You may have carried some back with you when you were up here. I wouldn't doubt it. It all started about the time you and I were over at Sylvia's. MY neighbor to the north has a large Mulberry in her front yard and I went over to talk to her and it was raining the nasty buggers. I stepped on a few under her tree, until I realized they were so many I wasn't making a dent.
I didn't catch them, but something about the time they infested my flower bed, my Holly bushes on the south side were being striped. They are not particular what they eat.
LouC, They are are great nuisance, but not fatal to a tree. When trees are small and within reach, you can take a stick and break the bag then spray w/ sevin or neem. Ii's a dirty job, I usually cover myself with an old long sleeve shirt to protect myself from those nasties. Two applications, 15 days apart should do the trick.
Heavy rains aggravate the webworm problem. For big trees you just have to look the other way...sigh.
Voss, looks like I will just have to endure. They are in mature trees that are 25-30 feet tall. Have had them before but this year is just unreal.
Heavy rains explain it.
Thanks.
Lou they are on every tree here.. I said every tree...
one of those things this year. I keep trimming them out of my tree and are back again in no time. Very sad.
Sometimes I think these kind of things are because we have gone against nature in some way and the balance is off and things can't take care of themselves. That is exactly what you and Josephine are trying to correct by using only natives plants.....right, Mitch. My yard also has more birds of every description than I have seen in a couple of years. Would think they were natural predators and these wormy things are crawling on every surface. Their poop is so thick. Wonder if it works as any kind of fertilizer......now that would be good.
Last year they were worse here at my place; thus far I've only had two colonies and was able to knock both of them down. Ugly as they are, I can't help but suspect there must be some symbiotic purpose to them. The pecan trees that were covered with them last year are flourishing now, so there hasn't been long term damage.
That is why I am trying to start teaching kids about native plants... get them before they are too old to listen.
I wonder what bird eats the worms... if it was those big black ones we have here they would all be gone by now.
I have two big Huisaches covered in yuk!!!!!!!!!!!! nasty nasty.................the owner of a nursery was out here visiting the other day and i asked her about some of my vines............she said it was falling from the nasty tree but looked healthy and it appeared I had sprayed my plants often enough that they just looked bad with the black stuff.
Whenever I look out the window, I'm sure to see them
dropping from the sky. They are everywhere - not just
by me but in the whole neighborhood. Even my neighbor's
huge old cottonwood tree is infested.
They have stripped my Climbing Iceberg, the mulberry
trees have very few leaves left, and they are crawling
everywhere. I did see a sparrow with 2 of them in it's
mouth and she was feeding her babies in the birdhouse.
Heck, I've had to put a hat on to do anything outside
or else I'd wind up with my hair covered by the darned
things. Disgusting.
They have been bad here too, but they seem to have taken a brake, they did totally defoliate my Possum haw, but it is coming back just fine, so there is hope.