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#1
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Tree worms
What does one do about the worms hanging out of the trees. Although
not as bad as last year, they are chewing the hell out of my live oak leaves and getting started on my roses and just about everything else. I've been going out a couple times a day with long stick and knocking the hangers down, but I don't know if that accomplishes much beyond temporary satisfaction. |
#2
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On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:38:07 -0500, J Rob wrote:
wrote: What does one do about the worms hanging out of the trees. Although not as bad as last year, they are chewing the hell out of my live oak leaves and getting started on my roses and just about everything else. I've been going out a couple times a day with long stick and knocking the hangers down, but I don't know if that accomplishes much beyond temporary satisfaction. Go ahead and satisfy yourself. Between completing their life cycle and pupating, and their natural enemies, the caterpillars will be gone in another week or so. What JRob said. but since I just sent a client an email about htis, here's abit more info: The little worms are called leaf rollers. They attack oaks every year around this time, eating (and rolling up in, as a cocoon) the new leaves. They are followed shortly by predatory insects (like tiny wasps) and birds, who eat them. Some years, the worms boom, which creates a happy time for the predators. Other years, the predators are so bountiful (from previous worm booms) that they dominate, but their population suffers because of a lack of food. Generally, the boom-bust cycle takes care of itself--the worms run their course quickly enough and the tree recovers without much trouble. If this seems like a particularly heavy infestation of worms, they can be sprayed. I'd avoid broad applications of pesticide in favor of Bt (Bacteria thurngiensis). This bacteria targets caterpillars and worms specifically and kills them without harming other insects. Of course, you might have some caterpillars about that could become beautiful butterflies, so I'd still avoid spraying unless you have a really bad case (based on what I've seen this year, I don't think it should be that bad, but these things are sometimes localized). Keith Babberney ISA Certified Arborist |
#3
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Thanks Keith and JRob
Last year the little *******s were really thick and stripped one big old tree so bad that I thought it was dead. It didn't look healthy for months. This year I'm probably just watching them too closely. |
#5
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"Treedweller" wrote in message ... On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:38:07 -0500, J Rob wrote: The little worms are called leaf rollers. They attack oaks every year around this time, eating (and rolling up in, as a cocoon) the new leaves. They are followed shortly by predatory insects (like tiny wasps) and birds, who eat them. Some years, the worms boom, which creates a happy time for the predators. Other years, the predators are so bountiful (from previous worm booms) that they dominate, but their population suffers because of a lack of food. Generally, the boom-bust cycle takes care of itself--the worms run their course quickly enough and the tree recovers without much trouble. In the forest, in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, there are years when those worms strip virtually all the leaves from the oaks. Their droppings are tiny dry black spheres, and can be dropping so abundantly they sound like drizzling rain. They uglify the oaks, but have never -- so far as I can tell -- do any lasting harm to them. Sometimes there are some stinging catapillars -- not numerous, thank goodness. If they fall on your skin the area they touch burns and stings and swells and turns red, very much like what happens when you brush against a bull nettle. I've always wondered what might happen if the heavy leaf-eating worms would come in the same year as a drought. I've never seen the two in the same summer. Drought (along with pine beetles and the beetles that kill mature red oaks) is one of the most destructive enemies of trees in in this region. Knowing that some plants (that cannot be watered) sometimes weather a drought better if they are cut back (to avoid dehydration)... I wonder if the reduction in total leaf surface by catapillars might even confer a slight advantage in a drought year. Only someone knowing actual research results could say, for sure. Keith Babberney ISA Certified Arborist |
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