I got them tent caterpillar blues

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
bfitz3

bfitz3

Feeling the Heat
Jan 6, 2015
415
Northern Michigan
Long walk today. Truly depressing. Just last week, all seemed okay, even if I could tell there were lots of caterpillars in the trees. Today, there is significant damage in the canopy. Some trees are clearly completely defoliated. I’ve never seen so much light in the understory, and there is a faint caterpillar turd-rain.

And so my questions... how much damage can an otherwise healthy tree take before it is doomed? Will they recover next year? If the caterpillars are ‘this’ dense this year, will next year be a caterpillar-pocalypse?

Ugh!
 
  • Like
Reactions: LocustPocust
bfitz3 said:
Long walk today. Truly depressing. Just last week, all seemed okay, even if I could tell there were lots of caterpillars in the trees. Today, there is significant damage in the canopy. Some trees are clearly completely defoliated. I’ve never seen so much light in the understory, and there is a faint caterpillar turd-rain.

And so my questions... how much damage can an otherwise healthy tree take before it is doomed? Will they recover next year? If the caterpillars are ‘this’ dense this year, will next year be a caterpillar-pocalypse?

Ugh!
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised at how resilient the trees can be. They will sometimes rebud in the same year after the caterpillars are gone, and are usually only killed if there are caterpillar attacks, multiple years in a row. We owned our last property about 8 years and in that time we only had one caterpillar attack and the trees rebounded without a problem. You can mist the trees with Btk and that should kill off the caterpillars in a couple of days. I tried burning all the tents with a torch on a stick. Went out late evening, and burned every one I could find. The STINK! I thought that should get 'em. The next evening, there were twice as many tents as the night before!
BC has been aerial spraying with Btk for gypsy moth for over 20 years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LocustPocust
I remember a similar infestation like that in my area in I think it was 2002. There weren't any long term effects. After they were defoliated they grew a second set of leaves which were much smaller than normal but the next year everything leafed out normally.

They're a native caterpillar and for whatever reason one year the population explodes out of control then for the next decade or more you hardly see any.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbeam
That’s reassuring! It’s truly gruesome out there. There are far too many acres for me to treat, so i’ll Just have to enjoy some sunnier hikes than I’m used to!

Thanks!
 
The lucky thing with caterpillar invasions is they bring their own seeds of destruction with them. If there is heavy year for them, natural controls like fungi and bacteria that attack them multiply and knock them back. I have heard of folks spraying the outside of the webs with BT and then poking a hole int he web with the spray wand and giving the interior a spray. BT is just a concentrated soil bacteria so its relatively be nigh (but do your research and read the label).

I think the mortality is high on young trees and transplants but not much of a threat on established trees unless they were stressed to begin with.
 
Interesting. Now that I think about it. I haven't seen one of these in upstate NY in forever. I used to see them quite frequently. Wonder what changed.
 
sportbikerider78 said:
Interesting. Now that I think about it. I haven't seen one of these in upstate NY in forever. I used to see them quite frequently. Wonder what changed.
Click to expand...
They came to Mass and Conn.
 
sportbikerider78 said:
Interesting. Now that I think about it. I haven't seen one of these in upstate NY in forever. I used to see them quite frequently. Wonder what changed.
Click to expand...
NY passed legislation on where they could build their tents, how big they could be, how many caterpillars could live in the tent, required a permit and inspection throughout the building process, then taxed them for it...

Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander L, AlbergSteve, firefighterjake and 2 others
We had them in North east PA, about 7 years ago. For a few years and then they were all gone. A lot of torn up leaves. The trees can take a lot. I cut all the ones I could reach down. I burned them in the fire pit. I don't recall the smell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back