Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Wait until its dark out(this is when all the caterpilliars come home to nest)
and either remove it by hand or if they freak you out, a hard stream of water.
By the way, those "little black eggs" are actually little black poopies..
heheh anyway they wont hurt you, good luck!

Toad

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Tear at the web and wasps will eat the caterpillars, or use Bt-K which is sold
as Dipel or BioWorm and is a dust. The caterpillar ingests it and gets sick.
It will not harm anything other than the caterpillars, even if birds eat them.

Victoria


On Sat, 07 Jun 2003 02:22:40 +0200, pelmar wrote:

Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

pelmar wrote in message ...
Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Take a plastic bag and scoop the caterpillars nest and all up, tie it
shut and let it bake in the sun.
Tussock Moth caterpillars are the ones with irrritating spines. No
problem with tent caterpillars so far. Europe might have different
ones.

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

What you're seeing are Tent Caterpillars. They are very common on various
fruit trees. Most hardware stores, including Home Depot and Lowe's, have
remedies to get rid of them. It's usually sold in a liquid that you mix and
spray on the tree. I also saw a can of Ortho Wasp killer in the store the
other day that listed Tent Caterpillars as one that it kills. That would be
ideal because the can sprays about 20' in distance, making it easy to reach
them. If you can do a search on Yahoo or Google, you can find pictures of
tent caterpillars to confirm my suspicions. Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7b - North Carolina
"pelmar" wrote in message
...
Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

"Marley1372" wrote in message
...
Wait until its dark out(this is when all the caterpilliars come home to
nest)
and either remove it by hand or if they freak you out, a hard stream of
water.
By the way, those "little black eggs" are actually little black poopies..
heheh anyway they wont hurt you, good luck!

Toad

Or use a long stick. That's what I've done. The birds will eat the worms
in no time, assuming you have a good population of birds.

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and their
small black eggs in my apple tree.

You have tent caterpillars. Spray with an insecticide which is listed for fruit
trees. You will probably have to spray several times. Wait until evening when
they are in their web and spray it heavily. You can also kill them if you have
a blowtorch with a very narrow flame, so you can aim it right at the web
without damaging the tree.
I don't know what you mean by small black eggs. That may be excrement. You
won't find eggs until the fall. In the fall, look over your tree for small
shiny egg masses on the trunk or branches. Cut the branch off if possible &
burn it. Otherwise remove all the eggs & burn them.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Iris Cohen wrote:

Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and their
small black eggs in my apple tree.

You have tent caterpillars. Spray with an insecticide which is listed for fruit
trees. You will probably have to spray several times. Wait until evening when
they are in their web and spray it heavily. You can also kill them if you have
a blowtorch with a very narrow flame, so you can aim it right at the web
without damaging the tree.

The occurence of tent caterpillars is very cyclical in nature - some years there
are few, if any, tents visble while in other years (like this one), the population
seems to be huge and very widespread. Many folks panic at the appearance of these
creatures, but they are short-lived and with the exception of very young and
vulnerable trees, seldom do any significant damage. Any defoliation will not be
permanent - trees releaf very easily. Tent caterpillars do not feed on anything but
foliage - your fruit will be unaffected.

Recommended treatment is to remove and destroy the nests before the caterpillars
emerge or while they are still very young. This is best done very early in the day
or late evening, when they regroup at their nests. When mature, they do not return
to the nests and control (if required) is done by application of a bio-control, Bt
(Bacillus thuringiensis), which affects only caterpillars. If they are mature
enough, they stop feeding and Bt is no longer effective, however their damage stage
is also over. Birds will take care of a good many, anyway. :-)

You DO NOT need to spray with a toxic insecticide. The damage does not warrant it
and it will destroy more beneficials than the target species, not to mention
mucking up the rest of the environment and rendering your fruit inedible. If your
tree is small enough, try hosing them out with a sharp stream of water. It will
kill many and the others you can pick and destroy.

I have given out this same information so often to clients and nursery customers
this season, I should have a recording made - it seems to be the number one topic!

pam - gardengal

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

On Sat, 7 Jun 2003 09:16:45 -0400, "Julia Green"
wrote:


Or use a long stick. That's what I've done. The birds will eat the worms
in no time, assuming you have a good population of birds.

I have heard that in the eastern US, that Baltimore Orioles will eat
tent caterpillars. Here in the western US, there are no birds (as far
as I know) that will touch the yucky things.

Bt can be sprayed directly on the leaves, but some other posters have
recommended poisons, which should not be used.

Mechanical removal is best, unless your trees are too tall to reach
them.

We are in the middle of a maximum part of the cycle, and we have the
caterpillars everywhere. They were thick on the sidewalk, and I
figured out that they cannot swim. So I used a wet/dry shop vac
(filled with water and a little bit of biodegradable soap) to suck
them all up.

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

"Paul Below" wrote in message

I have heard that in the eastern US, that Baltimore Orioles will eat
tent caterpillars. Here in the western US, there are no birds (as far
as I know) that will touch the yucky things.

All I know is that I poked the nests with a big, long stick, dragged down as
much of the crap as I could, left it on the ground, and, within a couple of
days, had no more caterpillars :) I've done this a couple of times when my
weeping cherry had a lot of nests. I haven't done anything when some of my
other cherry trees have had a few nests and there has never been a problem.

I also clip bagworms off of my various evergreens when it looks like they
have too many. No real problems with that either.

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Don't know if they are the same pestilence that we have around here (NC,
USA)...called tent caterpillars. Touching them won't harm you, but you can
destroy the web with a stick and it should destroy the colony...birds will
probably eat them. Some people do the drastic and cut the limb out of the
tree...it is not necessary to do so, and does more harm than good.

Good luck,

S


"pelmar" wrote in message
...
Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

Ya, but wasps are the predator of bagworms.


On Sat, 07 Jun 2003 11:32:37 GMT, "Penny Morgan" wrote:

What you're seeing are Tent Caterpillars. They are very common on various
fruit trees. Most hardware stores, including Home Depot and Lowe's, have
remedies to get rid of them. It's usually sold in a liquid that you mix and
spray on the tree. I also saw a can of Ortho Wasp killer in the store the
other day that listed Tent Caterpillars as one that it kills. That would be
ideal because the can sprays about 20' in distance, making it easy to reach
them. If you can do a search on Yahoo or Google, you can find pictures of
tent caterpillars to confirm my suspicions. Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7b - North Carolina
"pelmar" wrote in message
...
Much to my horror I discoverd cobweb like "sacs" of caterpillars and
their small black eggs in my apple tree. I live in Denmark but have only
come across the phenomenom in my childhood in the UK. I remember one
summer in the mid 80's that a warning came on the news about sacs of
caterpillars that could cause an allergic reaction if touched. They hung
in sacs on trees and I remember we had a tree like thsi ion our front
garden.

The question is how do I get rid of them as they seem to be slowly
eating away at both the leaves and the small fruits on my apple tree?

P

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

ATTENTION:

Ignore the following information. As usual, it's awful.


On 07 Jun 2003 13:55:31 GMT, (Iris Cohen) wrote:


You have tent caterpillars. Spray with an insecticide which is listed for fruit
trees. You will probably have to spray several times. Wait until evening when
they are in their web and spray it heavily. You can also kill them if you have
a blowtorch with a very narrow flame, so you can aim it right at the web
without damaging the tree.
I don't know what you mean by small black eggs. That may be excrement. You
won't find eggs until the fall. In the fall, look over your tree for small
shiny egg masses on the trunk or branches. Cut the branch off if possible &
burn it. Otherwise remove all the eggs & burn them.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

ATTENTION:

Ignore the following information. As usual, it's awful.


I agree, its obnoxious that people still reccommend spraying when you can
simply manually remove the damn things. Not only that, the spray wont reach
them in the nest. Some people dont care and they just spray the shit out of
everything they see. I had a customer come in today that wanted to spray
diazinon all over his deck and patio furniture because they were covered with
"little red spiders". When I asked him if it bothered him that his wife and
kids will be sitting on chairs covered with pesticide, he said "Ill just hose
them off".

Toad

Caterpillars in sac attacking apple tree
 

"Marley1372" wrote in message
...
ATTENTION:

Ignore the following information. As usual, it's awful.


I agree, its obnoxious that people still reccommend spraying when you can
simply manually remove the damn things. Not only that, the spray wont
reach
them in the nest. Some people dont care and they just spray the shit out
of
everything they see. I had a customer come in today that wanted to spray
diazinon all over his deck and patio furniture because they were covered
with
"little red spiders". When I asked him if it bothered him that his wife
and
kids will be sitting on chairs covered with pesticide, he said "Ill just
hose
them off".

Toad

Diazinon, is truly dangerous stuff. I personaly believe that my sister died
from complications due to exposure to it. Broad spectrum insectecides,
though convienent, are dangerous. I am glad that diazinon is going off the
market, finally. We have the ability to buy chemicals, that at one time
required a license, freelly without question. That is not good, in my
opinion.
Anyways these are just my thoughts, and I am keeping it brief. If you want
to talk in depth email me. Len