In article , Raleighgirl wrote:
Hiya.
I was at Logan's today and ran into the most beautiful tree I
think I've ever seen- a Catalpa tree. If you haven't seen one,
it has large fuzzy heart shaped leaves, richly textured bark and
flowers that look like bouquets of white orchids. Omy. In
general since I live in the woods, I am not ever in the market to
buy a tree but I may HAVE to have this one!
I came home and googled. Turns out this tree has one particular
caterpillar- Catalpa worms- that are amazingly wonderful to fish
with. This is part of one article:
"The worms are used for fishing. I even stored the worms in a
container in the fridge and used them later for fishing. These
worms can defoliate a tree. The tree does produce more leaves.
One summer the worms defoliated one tree three times that summer.
It did not kill that tree as we thought it might. They are nice
trees but are 'messy' at times. When the flowers fall and the
worm excrement and the worms fall to the ground or sidewalk. "
Ugh on the last part. So, my question to you all is this- if
there is a worm that can defoliate this tree, do I want to plant
this tree? It must be stressful for the poor tree. I'd rather
not have one than to have an always sickly one. Whacha think?
Jeny
O and PS. Logan's has very nice, organized inventory of
perennials. I did not "have to" buy one single thing there.



My father used to have some planted on a fencerow and sold the worms to
his co-workers years ago. When they get infested you can go out and
literally hear them munching away on the leaves. In South Carolina they
were called "Catawba" worms and I thought they were named after the
river. Was not until after college I found out the real name was
Catalpa. In certain areas they are in high demand by fishermen.

But like other catapillars, they are susceptible to insecticides and
since these are not food trees, you could use a systemic spray to
control them. Of course, the adult moth or butterfly has to find your
tree first. It may never be found tucked away in your yard in Raleigh.

Hope this helps.
--
Wes Dukes (wdukesNOatSPAMpoboxdotcom)