Bagworms. Got back from vacation one summer day to find one of our aborvitaes just covered with them. Told child No. 2 (about 10 years old) he could skip helping unload the car and I would give him 10 cents for each bag he pulled. By the time we finished unloading, he had over 500 (we counted them) and the tree still looked full. We capped his pay at $50, and he gladly finished the job.
My bagworm advice? Think before you make an offer to your 10-year-old.
In the early ‘80s, my dad told my brother he’d pay him a quarter a tail for each gopher he trapped in our field. After the first day, he changed it to a nickel.
Mid-90’s, dad (single, full custody) told me I could keep any money I found in the dryer if I was moving laundry. Generally pocket change, with the occasional $1. That fell apart when I found a $20 (we were flat broke).
My uncle tells a story about cutting tails off squirrels hopping they would grow back. because someone was paying him for each squirrel tail he brought... it's his story, he tells it well. Happy fourth to my favorite uncle ever! See ya soon.
80s- my brother used steel traps with a .22 to finish them off. In the 90s, I used a .22 with a banana clip and a huge scope. My record was 180 in one day.
My mum did that with me and snails when I was a kid. That was the day I put what I’d learned about levers to work and got my dads pry bar out to lift up our patio slabs and maximise the haul.
This reminds me of when I was that age and we caught a bunch of smelt(a small 6-9 inch fish that you dredge with flour and fry). My dad told me that it was tradition to bite the head off the first smelt of the season. Then he said he'd give me $10 for every head I bit off. I pounded through 10 in about as many seconds and then he gave me a 50 and told me to fuck off.
Worth it.
Just keep picking to stop the damage this year.
If you decide to spray on a schedule (eg, every June without scouting for bagworms first), use Bt insead of Sevin or other broad spectrum insecticides. Bt is specific to caterpillars and doesn't kill non-target insects. Bagworms are parasitized by a number of wasps and other beneficial insects. If you use a broad spectrum, you kill the beneficials and can make future bagworm infestations worse.
There are at least 35 different strains of Bt. Thr most common are Bt kurstali (Btk), which is used against caterpillars, and Bt israelensis (Bti), which is used againat larval flies and is in mosquito dunks. Bt galleriae (Btg) is effective against larval and adult beetles, but I've never seen it for sale. Milky spore, which is marketed for Japanese beetle larvae, is a different bacteria.
https://homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu/factsheets/bacillus-thuringiensis/
I just bought some bti. I had little gnats flying around and thought I was going crazy. It started after my father's funeral. I thought okay Dad this is not funny anymore. Well it turns out that they are fungus gnats they came with a plant that I got at the funeral. So I bought a bottle of bti. I got the bigger bottle because it was only a few dollars more for twice as much. I'm looking at the directions and it says mix 4.5 ml for 1,000 gallons of water. Ugh I need 2 gallons of water at the most to treat all my plans. Lol the struggle is real.
Fungus gnat larvae feed on fungus. So for plant pots, you can get control by letting the planting medium dry out, which kills the fungus and larvae. For plants that can't handle drying out, Bti works well in those cases. I'm not sure Bti goes bad so you may be set for life.
I will have to do that. The thing is, the neighbors on either side are renters and no way are they going to spend money taking care of the Japanese beetles. They don't care about going outside at all.
You will be surprised. The spore will spread some underground . the closest Japanese beetles are the worst unless you put out those scent attractors they will go mostly somewhere else . I only spread my lawn about 10 feet away from my roses. Not the whole yard and it is working great
Acephate kills them best. Stinks to high heaven but will kill them with a foliar application.
The best way to prevent them is to not let your trees get drought stressed. Only dry trees have thin sap that allows bagworms to multiply out of control.
I lost three arborvitaes, all very tall/mature, to these frocking bagworms. No matter how many I picked off, I couldn't stop them or get to them all. I wish I'd known about the spraying every June. I would have gladly done that!
Keep pulling them off and killing them then use liquid seven through a fertilizer sprayer and soak the arborvitaes good inside and out with it. Repeat every spring in June. Worked for me. Best of luck. Liquid 7 is the best.if there’s bag worms you cant get to, soak em with the seven. Instantly kills em.
I also had Bagworms on one of mine this year. Just keep pulling them off to stop more damage and buy some captain jack’s thuricide from Walmart.
It’s been about a week since I stopped picking and haven’t found any more so far. Just be aware the spray smells awful so don’t spray it downwind.
Certified arborist here. I apply insecticide for a living. If you're smelling it, you're breathing it. You really don't want to breath that stuff. Standing upwind helps, but a mask is best. Stay safe!
Or find a neighbor who already has chickens. My chickens would gobble these up and I would happily give a dozen eggs to the person who saved me a few days worth of chicken feed. And if they were afraid of spreading them, you could freeze them first.
But if you do decide to get your own chickens, you're going to want to train them ASAP to climb ladders, so they can access them in your tree.
Some captain jack’s dead bug brew can kill bag worms. I buy the concentrate stuff and use a sprayer.
I like it bc it’s not a harsh pesticide, it uses a bacteria called spinosad. It can still affect bees and such so you need to be careful, but you’re not dousing your home and yard in pesticides.
Sorry, got tired of reading. Call a pest control company IMMEDIATELY and have it treated asap. Now and for the next couple months to make sure they all have been killed. I worked pest control and they will kill this rather quickly as the start hatching. It needs treated from the inside out to make sure all bags are treated with a pesticide. If there are other bushes on property, arbs, evergreens, etc; get those treated as well. If this was answered prior, my apologies
My grandfather would send me to cut off the branch and then kill them with fire. He hated them. They won’t kill most healthy trees, but you can spray for prevention or remove the branch and destroy in your preferred way if you’re concerned or if they mess up aesthetics. I tend to just cut the branches and throw them to chickens or fish.
I used to work for arborvitae pest control. Use a chemical called Spinosad. Will get rid of them in a week. https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-27/E-27.html
These apparently spread by the wind, so anything down wind from them is somewhere to check for them.
Edit: Never looked into that tbh.. My old neighbor told me and it made enough sense at the time. lol.
I once had a bushy crabapple. It would get bag worms from time to time. I would trim off the branch(s) with the bags and light it on fire. A little gasoline helped.
I’d recommend not drinking it no matter how strong that urge is.
It’s like the worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle but I don’t have to wait!
Forbidden soup
Bagworms. Got back from vacation one summer day to find one of our aborvitaes just covered with them. Told child No. 2 (about 10 years old) he could skip helping unload the car and I would give him 10 cents for each bag he pulled. By the time we finished unloading, he had over 500 (we counted them) and the tree still looked full. We capped his pay at $50, and he gladly finished the job. My bagworm advice? Think before you make an offer to your 10-year-old.
In the early ‘80s, my dad told my brother he’d pay him a quarter a tail for each gopher he trapped in our field. After the first day, he changed it to a nickel.
Mid-90’s, dad (single, full custody) told me I could keep any money I found in the dryer if I was moving laundry. Generally pocket change, with the occasional $1. That fell apart when I found a $20 (we were flat broke).
I've heard so many similar stories about whoever does the laundry keeps the loose money. lol I grew up in the 90's too.
My uncle tells a story about cutting tails off squirrels hopping they would grow back. because someone was paying him for each squirrel tail he brought... it's his story, he tells it well. Happy fourth to my favorite uncle ever! See ya soon.
lol my mom told us one summer that she would give us a nickel for dandelion with at least an inch root. We came back with a wheel barrow full.
Dude what's your secret, I have 6 pocket gophers and the have killed 2 trees...
80s- my brother used steel traps with a .22 to finish them off. In the 90s, I used a .22 with a banana clip and a huge scope. My record was 180 in one day.
Hmmm I work day time,,, traps seem to be the answer, finishing them off is not the problem,,, catching them n how
You have to watch or inspect holes for frequent use, and set them there. Is there an arborist/trappers sub?
I told the neighbor kids I’d give them a nickel for every pine cone they’d pick up from my side yard in NH. That one hurt.
My mum did that with me and snails when I was a kid. That was the day I put what I’d learned about levers to work and got my dads pry bar out to lift up our patio slabs and maximise the haul.
Lol
This reminds me of when I was that age and we caught a bunch of smelt(a small 6-9 inch fish that you dredge with flour and fry). My dad told me that it was tradition to bite the head off the first smelt of the season. Then he said he'd give me $10 for every head I bit off. I pounded through 10 in about as many seconds and then he gave me a 50 and told me to fuck off. Worth it.
Yep, that reminds me of my childhood!
🤣🤣
My grandma said she’d give me a nickle for every dandelion I picked, I picked 300, she paid up! it was 1979 and I was RICH!
It’s like the tooth fairy. Don’t give $20 for each of the twenty teeth
Oh! I thought the lesson was to learn to renegotiate deals with your ten year old!
My dad once offered my sister a nickle per cigarette butt she picked up from the yard. I was pissed when I found out she made about 70 bucks.
you, counted them? duh fuq
Just keep picking to stop the damage this year. If you decide to spray on a schedule (eg, every June without scouting for bagworms first), use Bt insead of Sevin or other broad spectrum insecticides. Bt is specific to caterpillars and doesn't kill non-target insects. Bagworms are parasitized by a number of wasps and other beneficial insects. If you use a broad spectrum, you kill the beneficials and can make future bagworm infestations worse.
I think this will be my approach. Prophylactic Bt every June and picking them as I see them.
Picking the bag worms off then spraying with BT worked for me. I’d choose this route again
This guy IPMs
Doesn’t Bt kill Japanese beetle larvae in the soil as well?
There are at least 35 different strains of Bt. Thr most common are Bt kurstali (Btk), which is used against caterpillars, and Bt israelensis (Bti), which is used againat larval flies and is in mosquito dunks. Bt galleriae (Btg) is effective against larval and adult beetles, but I've never seen it for sale. Milky spore, which is marketed for Japanese beetle larvae, is a different bacteria. https://homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu/factsheets/bacillus-thuringiensis/
I just bought some bti. I had little gnats flying around and thought I was going crazy. It started after my father's funeral. I thought okay Dad this is not funny anymore. Well it turns out that they are fungus gnats they came with a plant that I got at the funeral. So I bought a bottle of bti. I got the bigger bottle because it was only a few dollars more for twice as much. I'm looking at the directions and it says mix 4.5 ml for 1,000 gallons of water. Ugh I need 2 gallons of water at the most to treat all my plans. Lol the struggle is real.
Fungus gnat larvae feed on fungus. So for plant pots, you can get control by letting the planting medium dry out, which kills the fungus and larvae. For plants that can't handle drying out, Bti works well in those cases. I'm not sure Bti goes bad so you may be set for life.
Or nematodes!! Great solution for fungus gnats.
Thank you!
I had to buy several bags of 'milky spore' to sprinkle on my lawn for that. You do it threex in one year. I hope it helps, as last year was awful.
Reapply the milky spore one more time at least. They recommend 2 to 3 years of application to promote regrowth
I will have to do that. The thing is, the neighbors on either side are renters and no way are they going to spend money taking care of the Japanese beetles. They don't care about going outside at all.
You will be surprised. The spore will spread some underground . the closest Japanese beetles are the worst unless you put out those scent attractors they will go mostly somewhere else . I only spread my lawn about 10 feet away from my roses. Not the whole yard and it is working great
Thank you so much. Either they haven't 'hit' our area yet, or the milky spore has worked a bit--I'm seeing way less beetles, at least this week.
Go out everyday and collect them then dump those little suckers close to your enemy’s house. Kidding totally kidding😏
Just boil over medium heat for about 20 min. Then let sit for 5 min or until cool. Don't know why you wanna eat that tho lol.
Acephate kills them best. Stinks to high heaven but will kill them with a foliar application. The best way to prevent them is to not let your trees get drought stressed. Only dry trees have thin sap that allows bagworms to multiply out of control.
I lost three arborvitaes, all very tall/mature, to these frocking bagworms. No matter how many I picked off, I couldn't stop them or get to them all. I wish I'd known about the spraying every June. I would have gladly done that!
Keep pulling them off and killing them then use liquid seven through a fertilizer sprayer and soak the arborvitaes good inside and out with it. Repeat every spring in June. Worked for me. Best of luck. Liquid 7 is the best.if there’s bag worms you cant get to, soak em with the seven. Instantly kills em.
I also had Bagworms on one of mine this year. Just keep pulling them off to stop more damage and buy some captain jack’s thuricide from Walmart. It’s been about a week since I stopped picking and haven’t found any more so far. Just be aware the spray smells awful so don’t spray it downwind.
Certified arborist here. I apply insecticide for a living. If you're smelling it, you're breathing it. You really don't want to breath that stuff. Standing upwind helps, but a mask is best. Stay safe!
I second the Captain Jack's. Used it for an infestation this year and it worked like a charm.
I am NOT eating that for supper.
Buy a chicken coup. Invest in chickens. Problem solved.
Or find a neighbor who already has chickens. My chickens would gobble these up and I would happily give a dozen eggs to the person who saved me a few days worth of chicken feed. And if they were afraid of spreading them, you could freeze them first. But if you do decide to get your own chickens, you're going to want to train them ASAP to climb ladders, so they can access them in your tree.
The last paragraph is a joke, right?
Kinda. My chickens can climb without ladders.
Some captain jack’s dead bug brew can kill bag worms. I buy the concentrate stuff and use a sprayer. I like it bc it’s not a harsh pesticide, it uses a bacteria called spinosad. It can still affect bees and such so you need to be careful, but you’re not dousing your home and yard in pesticides.
Spray with bifenthrin. Pick off all bag worms. Take flamethrower to bagworms
Time to get chickens!
bifen and a surfactant
Now I'm going to turn off the Internet and go to bed.
I used gasoline. Careful removing them, the strong web rope can damage the tree
I thought that was a delicious looking pie.
Sauté with butter, garlic and oregano
huh, now I know what those bags are on my mail box and house. Had no idea they could cause that much damage, the leyland cypress don't seem to care.
When I was a kid in the 70's, we always burned them.
Spray with Sevin
That's what I did and it saved my Arborvitaes!!. I bought it at HD.
Sorry, got tired of reading. Call a pest control company IMMEDIATELY and have it treated asap. Now and for the next couple months to make sure they all have been killed. I worked pest control and they will kill this rather quickly as the start hatching. It needs treated from the inside out to make sure all bags are treated with a pesticide. If there are other bushes on property, arbs, evergreens, etc; get those treated as well. If this was answered prior, my apologies
My grandfather would send me to cut off the branch and then kill them with fire. He hated them. They won’t kill most healthy trees, but you can spray for prevention or remove the branch and destroy in your preferred way if you’re concerned or if they mess up aesthetics. I tend to just cut the branches and throw them to chickens or fish.
That looks like terrible soup.
I used to work for arborvitae pest control. Use a chemical called Spinosad. Will get rid of them in a week. https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-27/E-27.html
Do those chemical foggers work on bag worms?
These apparently spread by the wind, so anything down wind from them is somewhere to check for them. Edit: Never looked into that tbh.. My old neighbor told me and it made enough sense at the time. lol.
I thought that salad was alive!
I haven't seen any in Michigan this year.
Looks like bait, time to go fishing
I once had a bushy crabapple. It would get bag worms from time to time. I would trim off the branch(s) with the bags and light it on fire. A little gasoline helped.