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| FALL WEBWORM ON ALDER BUSH ALONG HWY. 13... |
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| ...LARVAE FEEDING WITHIN WEB |
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| FALL WEBWORM MOTH (Google file photo) |
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| FALL WEBWORM LARVAE (Google file photo) |
Wednesday, 8:00 AM. 61 degrees at the ferry dock, 57 on the back porch. The sky has a
high overcast, the humidity is 97% and we received a trace of rain last night. The barometer is trending up, now at 29.86". It should clear up later. The fall web worms are caterpillars of the species Hyphantria cunea, that feed on apple and other mostly hardwood trees while protected inside a silken web that they spin. They are yet another sign of approaching fall. There are several quite similar races of these insects, and if the season is long enough there can be more than one generation which feeds on tree foliage. The adult of the aforementioned species is a white moth about an inch-and-a-half in length. The insects overwinter in the pupal stage, in leaf litter. Like the tent caterpillars that appear in spring, they do little real damage to their host trees other than causing them to be unsightly. The spring tent caterpillars feed under silken "tents" as well, but the webbing is located at the crotches of young branches, the "worms" emerging to feed on host foliage and retreating to their webs for safety. The fall web worms feed within their webbing, which encompasses terminal branches and leaves.
The easiest and most environmentally neutral control of both tent caterpillars and fall web worms is to cut out the branches and foliage covered by the tent or web and burn or bury them. Insecticides are hard to use on these pests because they are so well protected. If one is not squeamish they are also easy to destroy by by crushing them by hand inside their webs, if they are within reach.
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WELCOME TO ART'S BAYFIELD ALMANAC
ABOUT ME
- ART ODE, THE CONSERVATIVE ENVIRONMENTALIST
- BAYFIELD, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES
- I am semi-retired after a long career in botanical garden and arboretum management. We have lived and worked in WI, NY, NE an OH, and love this big, bold country of ours, where anyone with a desire to educate themselves and work hard can succeed. I have nearly quit calling myself an environmentalist, since I consider the once proud term to have been hijacked by too many persons and causes that are little more than left wing apologists with their own, usually unscientific and anti-democracy agendas. And nobody understands what a "Conservationist" is anymore. Hence the "Conservative Environmentalist." I Currently work as a horticulture consultant, designing and installing landscapes and gardens locally and elsewhere. I also serve as the (volunteer) Forester for the City of Bayfield, and am a member of the State of Wisconsin Urban Forestry Advisory Council.
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