Defoliation can stunt growth and vigor of your tree and damage trees already under stress. Forest tent caterpillars build tightly woven mats of web on branches or the trunk of the tree where many larvae cluster together; afterwards, they leave the web to feed on new leaves. The mature moths lay eggs on your trees in late summer and fall, then they hatch the following spring.
The new caterpillars start the process of munching on your trees all over again. There are natural methods we can use to control infestations of tent caterpillars and webworms of all kinds. If we can identify an infestation in a timely fashion, we can use a non-toxic plan of installing a biological control. Populations of tent caterpillars can also be treated with Bt Bacillus thuringiensis , bacterium that is deadly to the caterpillars but harmless to birds, fish, pets and people.
Large trees will require special equipment in order to apply the treatment high in the canopy. For more information on tent caterpillars, visit our blog post here. Shade Tree vs. Your Lawn: Which Will Win? Close Menu. Facebook Twitter Instagram Instagram Adventure. How climate scientists talk to their kids about the climate crisis We chat to three climate scientists from the University of New South Wales about how they talk to their kids about the climate crisis.
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Once this irrational fear subsides, your second reaction might be to understand what these caterpillars are up to. Why are they moving in this strange way?
You might guess that it has something to do with safety in numbers. While this might be part of the story, it turns out that there's another really ingenious reason why these caterpillars climb over each other. So here's the scene. Destin , of the incredible YouTube video series Smarter Every Day , and Phil Torres , who's a conservation biologist and intrepid rainforest explorer, come across this large, writhing ball of caterpillars in the Amazon rainforest.
And seemingly immediately, Destin has an idea - what if the reason that the caterpillars are crawling over each other is to get a speed boost? So he goes home, and designs a wonderfully elegant experiment, using Lego, to prove his point. I just love how this simple Lego powered explanation gets right to the heart of this strange phenomenon. View Iframe URL. It's a simple, but totally mind-blowing idea. Anyone who's been on one of those endless moving walkways at airports knows that if you walk on a moving belt, you'll get to the end faster.
And so these caterpillars have essentially built a caterpillar-powered conveyor belt. Unlike a typical conveyor belt, this one never runs out, because the caterpillars keep disassembling and re-assembling it. The really surprising thing is that this entire rolling swarm of caterpillars moves faster than any single caterpillar can , as Destin taught us with his Lego race. Isn't that weird? I found it a little hard to swallow.
I mean, sure, the caterpillars on the top are getting a speed boost. But the ones at the bottom are still trudging along at their regular speed. So why does the entire group get a speed boost?
But take a few moments to observe the tent caterpillars in action, and you'll soon discover they are remarkably sophisticated insects. These 10 fascinating facts about tent caterpillars may change your opinion of these common pests.
It's no coincidence that dozens of tent caterpillars camp out together in a communal silk tent. Tent caterpillars are highly social beings! Within the genus Malacosoma , there are 26 known species of tent caterpillars, and all of them exhibit social behaviors. The female moth deposits eggs in a single mass, often on the south side of a cherry tree branch. For the weeks they are caterpillars, these siblings will live and feed and grow together. Not all Malacosoma caterpillars build large, permanent tents, but those that do use their family tent as a base of operations throughout the larval life stage.
Eastern tent caterpillars begin their lives by choosing a location to build their home. The tiny caterpillars look for a tree crotch that receives morning sun, and then each spins silk to contribute to their tent's construction. Early instar caterpillars only require a small tent, but as they grow, they expand their tent to accommodate their larger size. Before each foraging trip, the caterpillars mend and maintain their home. Between meals, the tent serves as a resting place, where the caterpillars are afforded some protection from predators.
Many insects use chemical markers to communicate. Eastern tent caterpillars leave pheromone trails to signal their siblings, and they do so in a fairly sophisticated way. They use different pheromones to mark exploratory trails and recruitment trails.
When a wandering caterpillar encounters an exploratory pheromone trail, it knows another caterpillar is already surveying that branch for food and turns in another direction. If a caterpillar locates a branch flush with leaves, it signals to others to join the meal using its recruitment pheromone.
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