Does anyone know of a surefire way to get rid of tent caterpillers? This past few days I have found many on my small pine trees. I did the soap tabasco thing but they keep comming back. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-- Dan T (hoppingator321@yahoo.com), June 05, 2001

Answers

Response to caterpillers

Here are two things you can check on to make sure they will work. One is the natural pesticide Dipel (bacillus thuringenesis). It kills the bacteria in their digestive tracts and so the "worm" dies too. I think it works on most caterpillars. The other is a barrier I read about in the local paper. You are supposed to wrap duct tape around the tree trunk and then coat the tape in vaseline as a physical barrier to keep any more from climbing up the tree. Hope this helps, Cynthia

-- Cynthia Speer (farmsteader@gvtel.com), June 05, 2001.

Response to caterpillers

I am battling them every day --stomping, drowning, spraying with Bt. I have heard that if you have one of those containers that fit onto your garden hose, that spraying them down with a combination of water and Dawn dish soap severly crimps them.

Another acquaintance advocates burning their nests out of trees with a propane torch. However, he does mention that you have to be careful of the flaming caterpillars dropping down in your hair.

Bt is probably better...

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), June 06, 2001.

Like Julie has said, the propane torch thing works really well, toasted caterpillers are DEAD caterpillers! No pesticides, no additional costs, and very effective. We used the torch to remove all the nests from the apple trees and pines, and the wild black cherry trees, which are their favorite! Requires a fearless person on the ladder however!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), June 06, 2001.

It may be a bit late for this, but we watch to see when the tents first start appearing, then remove them by hand, seal them in plastic bags and send them to the incinerator to help generate power for the county. (There is one thing that tent caterpillars are good for!!) When we didn't do this, we lost fruiting trees very quickly (one cherry and one crabapple). In our area the caterpillars on the pine trees weren't tent caterpillars, but were something else. I really had to keep an eye on them since they would strip small trees very quickly. I'd have to go out every day or two with my can of soapy water and plop in as many caterpillars as I could find. Right now I'm battling sawfly caterpillars on my columbine. They are teeny, the same color as the leaves and stems, and defoliate in a day or less. Does anyone know of a way other than Sevin to get rid of them?

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), June 06, 2001.