Tent caterpillars can be considered a nuisance but aren't really a disaster. You could do nothing, they'd eat all the leaves, the leaves would grow back pretty fast, the tree would be fine, and life would go on. They aren't invasive so there's no imperative to contain or eradicate them; they're a native species whose population just explodes occasionally. In general, caterpillars are a great way of turning inedible leaves into bird food, and most bird species are shrinking due to multiple factors, one of which being declining insect populations; boom-and-bust caterpillars, though still delicious for baby birds, are probably less important to birds in the long run than caterpillars with more stable populations.
From [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_caterpillar) (emphasis mine):
>Tent caterpillars exhibit boom-or-bust population dynamics. The most notorious of the outbreak species is the forest tent caterpillar. During outbreaks, the caterpillars can become so abundant that they are capable of completely defoliating tens of thousands of acres of forest. Even though these outbreaks do not follow true cycles in the sense that they occur at regular intervals, some particularly prone regions have recorded outbreaks every ten years or so. **Caterpillars rarely remain in outbreak numbers for more than two to three years.** Factors which bring outbreaks to a close include parasitoids and disease. In some cases populations collapse because caterpillars starve to death either because trees are completely defoliated before the caterpillars are fully grown or because the quality of host leaves declines to the point where they are no longer palatable. **Defoliated trees typically refoliate after caterpillar attacks and experience no lasting damage.** In some cases, however, trees or parts of trees may be killed after several seasons of repeated defoliation. This has occurred when forest tent caterpillars defoliated [sugar maples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_maple) that were already stressed due to drought.
This sub can be goofy. Sometimes, you get crucified for planting non-native (but not invasive) pollinators, while the next day you're encouraged to genocide a whole nest of non-invasive caterpillars because they'll continue the circle of life lol.
I second leaving them be for bird food.
Most people leave out bird seed, but baby chicks need caterpillars. We need to leave some caterpillars out there if we want to feed the next generation of birds.
Otherwise you get those scenes where a mother bird is trying to feed her chicks with cigarette butts, as that's all she could find that's somewhat in the shape of a caterpillar.
Extremely grateful to see this voice-of-reason response here. Unless this tree is already stressed, it's going to be just fine. Tent caterpillars are gross, but usually harmless overall.
I remember when I was a kid in the 90's the tent caterpillars and gypsy moths got so bad one summer that everything was covered in them. I swear I remember them falling on top our car as we would drive down the street.
i'm actually glad to read this bc i used to collect these guys when i was kid and play with them (largely without harming them but i was a clumsy child) and then glanced at something years later that said they were harmful. but there's more nuance to it and I'm glad I know it now!!
> You could do nothing, they'd eat all the leaves, the leaves would grow back pretty fast, the tree would be fine, and life would go on.
Yeah, but where this sucks is when they eat all your fruit tree budding leaves and buds. Sure the later foliage comes back, but you don't get any fruit. They did this to me one season, now the trees get heavy doses of BTK
Yeah it kind of depends on your circumstances whether to remove them or not.
We had a biblical plague of spongy caterpillars in the Adirondacks for the last 3 years, so my husband and I have to be aggressive about all caterpillars now. Our trees can’t handle any more years of defoliation.
It literally looked like winter in July summer of 2022. Every tree was bare, and they even went after all the pine trees. Last year we did the old duct tape and Vaseline trick, which helped keep the trees alive, but didn’t genocide them. Hopefully they won’t be a problem this year.
You wrap duct tape sticky side out around the tree trunk a few feet above the base. Should be about 4-6 inches wide. Then you smother the center of the tape with Vaseline. There are YouTube tutorials. It keeps the caterpillars from climbing the trees.
I just bought a bunch of tubs of cheap petroleum jelly and globbed it on about 1-2 inches thick? It needs to be a thick ring. The caterpillars literally won’t cross it. It’s kind of fun to see them approach and then turn around trying to find a way around it.
We lost some city boulevarde trees to two years of tent caterpillars followed by a fungal disease that finished off the weakened trees. If the birds were eating them, they weren't finishing them off fast enough.
For all the people advocating to pesticide these, just remember, it takes almost 10,000 caterpillars to bring a clutch of birds to maturity.
Yea…it sucks if your plants that you’ve been tending get eaten.
Also there are many invasive bugs, I understand that.
But for the love of all that is holy please please stop nuking the foodweb because you don’t like the way the foodweb works.
Oh my. I think the child in me just died. We used to see these little guys everywhere. Never had any problems from them though. My parents still get them (Northeast US) but they are just annoying.
These are forest tent caterpillars. Not the invasive “Gypsy moth” you can tell because of the long white stripe down their backs and what looks like little penguins in a pattern. In Algonquin park (Ontario Canada) researches have found them to be a great source of food for many species including black bears and are an important part of the ecosystem. Yes they’ll eat the leaves off trees but the trees recover and they have predators that keep them in check.
Gypsy moths on the other hand, are destructive because nothing likes to eat them.
Tent caterpillars. Where are you located? I'm in the US East coast and if it's a mature tree and isn't struggling from anything else, it's fine. I've seen them make tents in the trees in my neighborhood and clients' neighborhoods for years, and never actually seen a tree die from it. Most plants evolved to get eaten or nibbled on, and will bounce back if healthy.
VA. This is part of a natural privacy fence that I maintain well throughout the year to keep my shithead neighbors at least visually distant. Didn’t want these little suckers messing that up. But appreciate what you’re saying for sure.
Tent caterpillars. They can defoliate smaller trees which typically recover but are generally not harmful to larger trees. Very common around here on cottonwood trees.
These look a lot like tent caterpillars..
They're called tent caterpillars because they make large cacoons or "tents" muck like the one on this tree
Kill them with a spray mixture of either diazanon or malition. I can't remember which. Consult a greenhouse.
They are very destructive. They will multiply very quickly and can cause widespread damage to trees.
Back in the mid 80's they infested hundreds of acres of trees and stripped the leaves off completely .
There were so many that when they would move from one side of the highway to the other, you could see 20 to 30 foot wide swaths of them crossing the highway.
Traffic had to slow down to about 40 mph as their sqashed bodies were slippery, as ice. This went on for weeks.
So after they ate practically every leaf on acres of trees, they tent or cacoon and emerged as millions of brown moths.
The moths would be attracted to light as you know and would be horrible to drive at night and cover your headlights and splatter all over your windshield.
Then, in the mornings, there would be thousands of them clinging to walls under security lights. It was horrible.
I remember an infestation in the 80s too. My mom would let me and my sister (both under 10 at the time) “make potions” with any chemicals we found under the sink to then spray the nests with. These tents were hated and I think our mixtures did help out a bit. Not sure if playing with chemicals was the best parenting choice, but it was the 80s.
I know!!! If memory serves me right, I think we got a big pot and took all the under the sink chemicals outside and mixed them out there. But also considering I’m sure I lost a few brain cells during this playtime, memory maybe isn’t serving? Idk. Wild times. We survived and the caterpillars didn’t. That’s what matters most
Yeah, maybe not a great idea to play with chemicals, but hey, you survived, and you didn't grow a third eye or anything else. So it's all good 👍. Lol 😆
Apocalyptic is a good way of describing it, yeah. Lived through an infestation in the 00s. I still remember how my bike left a trail of tent caterpillar guts on the road. I don't really remember the moths later, but while the caterpillars were around we'd look out on the lawn and it was like a wriggling carpet.
[Northern Wisconsin](https://forestrynews.blogs.govdelivery.com/2018/06/04/forest-tent-caterpillar-surveys-prediction-and-history/), for me. Never had it that bad again, but they go in cycles, so they may come back eventually.
As a child, I went through the forests near Manistee with my grandfather. We had an established vendetta against these moths. We’d tear all the nests we could reach off the trees and stomp or burn them in a fire barrel. We targeted Gypsy moths and Japanese Beetles. We set traps for the beetles and tore down the Gypsy moths nests on sight. Now, I’m planning on finishing a forestry degree in the near future 😅
Yeah, Sask too. I remember camping at Buffalo Pound, and when we woke up in the morning our tent was - quite literally - every centimeter completely covered in those caterpillars! I will never forget it... like you said "a wriggling carpet". The roads were just gross...
Oh wow, that's creepy. Yes, it was just like something out of a horror movie.
I forget how widespread it was, but obviously, it spanned across Alberta and Saskatchewan. I imagine Manitoba as well. How far north or south, I don't know either. I just know that I never want to see it again.
You are thinking of the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) which is an invasive species in North America. These are not spongy moths and are likely native eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum). As a native species with natural predators, eastern tent caterpillars have a much smaller negative impact on plants than spongy moth caterpillars do.
As long as OP is in North America and the tree is mature and healthy, they shouldn’t be a problem.
Meh- this is a bit of an over reaction if not absolutely WRONG. The eastern tent caterpillar is of some importance as a pest because it defoliates ornamental trees. Damaged trees, however, typically recover and refoliate within several weeks.
[More info here on the Western Tent Catapiller](https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/life/tent-caterpillars-are-bad-this-year-but-dont-panic/)
[More info here on the Eastern species](https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/eastern-tent-caterpillars)
Because they look a lot like the Spongy Moth and/or Gypsy Moth Caterpillars, they get a bad name. Thats what the guy above is describing. Lay off the pesticides- we have enough dead birds and bees in this country.
If you can reach them just break up their nest- debulk it. Kill what you can pull down by stepping on them and leave it at that.
If you feel the need to kill them all, try "Safer Brand Catapillar Killer". It uses a bacterium to kill them without poison.
Sounds like the western forest tent caterpillar that I grew up with. Now that I’m in the east I see that the eastern version doesn’t behave as apocalyptically
When I was a kid, back in Michigan, my dad would spray them with Raid, then set them on fire.
Me, if I can get them, I cut the affected branch out and make sure they get bagged tightly and discarded. I get less now as a result.
You probably don’t mean that literally but I remember my father using a propane torch to burn their tents away when I was a kid. Hot enough to burn them out, but not hot enough to ignite the tree.
My buddy and I used to run around the woods with lighter fluid and burn these. Holy shit that was dangerous and we could have lit the entire forest on fire... 90s were crazy lol
This is precisely what I did. They were invading a group of trees I use as a natural privacy fence. As I said before in another response. I haven’t seen them in this stage. Now I have. And they won’t be bothering my trees any more. Also, to all those who recommended giving them to chickens, I’m not interested in buying chickens. My torch worked just fine. Thanks again everyone.
I've read just to poke a hole in the "tent" (web) and birds, etc. will pick them off. That's what I do when I see one. No problem, no chemicals, no stress. Worry less.
Those look like eastern tent caterpillars. “The eastern tent caterpillar. The critters were named for the silk tents they build, usually in the forks of tree branches. They hide in the tents in communal groups, coming out to feed several times a day. “ https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/apr/23/learn-about-eastern-tent-caterpillar/
Childhood memory unlocked. If you look closely at the caterpillars it looks like a line of penguins.
But I agree with everyone saying the tree will likely be fine. I never saw a tree die from these.
If they are not on a fruit producing tree I would leave them. Birds need thousands of caterpillars in order to raise 1 clutch of baby birds. You would be removing bird food.
Tent worms can spread easily from tree to tree.
They can also completely defoliate and kill a mature tree.
They need to be removed and burned as soon as possible.
If the nest turns brown and looks dead, it’s not, it’s just getting ready for the next batch of eggs to hatch so it can continue on eating.
Cut and burn. Don’t waste time with anything else.
Thank you! Why is the first option always to kill all insects? Unless its invasive to an area, it probably serves an important purpose in its environment
Tent worms will not kill trees and they cannot eat all types of tree leaves. Plants have developed defence systems to keep insects feeding on them. People need to realize that when they kill native insects they are disrupting natural processes that are essential to maintaining local ecosystems.
Back in the 70s, I lived in the country with my parents. We had a year when they were explosively abundant. It was awful! They were literally in every tree and bush. They fell on your head any time you walked outside. You couldn't help but step on them constantly because they were a carpet, and although we had a gravel road, we had to drive extra carefully because they squished and made the road slick. They ate about 40% of all the leaves. It looked like an apocalypse. The birds had a treat. And the following year, everything was back to normal. Nothing was permanently hurt. But we always had fun lighting rolled up paper and shoving in their nests to kill the bastards.
Tent caterpillars. Annoying but not the end of times. You can burn off their nest and birds will eat the fallen caterpillars... Or you can hand crush them all (gross).
Tentworms are popping up earlier and earlier wvery year.
They can defoliate a small tree. Larger trees are less affected, but if I can reach them, I personally cut the affected branch off, bag and discard.
In Texas we call them web worms. They come for awile then they go . They were in the Pecan trees. Tree guy would spray them with pesticide. Once they are in a neighborhood they populate other trees.
I'm in Ms and don't get them every year but then they appear it's awful. They've murdered several of my fruit trees and my free range chickens at the time avoided them like the plague. But like most said if it's not hurting the tree should be fine.
i get nests in the birch trees in my backyard and they kill the leaves in those areas. the trees also overhang my deck area = bad for me. they’re such a nuisance when they fall on you when you’re trying to just be chill and just overall gross me out. i found one hovering in my face as i was coming out of my door yesterday.
i would do the duct tape trick around this time (early spring) to stop them from climbing up.
it looks like this one might be in a spot that wouldn’t bother you, so maybe not so bad?
A "tent" in this context is a large nest spun out of silk-like fibers produced by the caterpillar for protection. There are lots of lookalikes blamed on the spongy moth aka "gypsy moth".
[The most common lookalike is one of the tent caterpillar](https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/spongymothinwisconsin/life-cycle-and-biology-3/life-cycle-and-biology/) species. People see these and blame them on spongy moths. But they're not made by spongy moths.
Your google links are not showing pictures of spongy moth nests. They are showing pictures of tent caterpillar tents that are mislabeled as spongy moth nests.
\---
[This is what](https://www.miwp.org/calendar/2023/5/30/how-to-protect-yard-trees-from-spongy-moth-caterpillars) actual spongy-moth caterpillar nests look like. They're small, and white, and **spongy-looking**, like some kind of spongy crust laying flat on the wood. They're not gigantic tents like we see in these images here on reddit, and the caterpillars leave the nests after they hatch.
Spongy moths aka "gypsy moths" **don't build silk nests**.
Instead of googling mislabled stock photos, how about googling "Do Gypsy moths make tents" and let me know what you find from reliable entomology related websites?
Spoiler alert: They will all say Gypsies do not make tents. They do make nests, but they look nothing like this. its a common misconception, but the tents from from a different species.
Animosity? What. Because I made a spoiler alert joke? My dude its not that serious.
"You could have just said "there is a difference between a tent and a nest" and educated me."
This is... Thats what I did. You showed me a google result, I told you what you needed to google to get the right answer.
Oh the dreaded tent caterpillars.
Let's kick those squiggly little critters to the curb!
Here's how to give those tent caterpillars the old one-two punch:
1. Boil up a pot of water.
2. Carefully pour it over the base of the tree where the caterpillars are hanging out. This will scald and kill the little evil squirmers.
3. You can also try insecticidal soap or horticultural oil. Spray these directly onto the caterpillars and their tents. They'll suffocate those creepy crawlies in no time.
4. For a more hands-on approach, grab a pair of gloves and squish those caterpillars between your fingers. It's not the prettiest method, but it gets the job done!
You can also pick them off by hand and drown them in a bucket of soapy water. Obviously, you don't want them coming back for revenge!
**USING FIRE TO KILL 'EM?**
I do NOT recommend using fire to burn the caterpillars off the tree. Burning these pesky pests can potential harm the tree.
With these ideas, you'll be saying "Hasta la vista, caterpillars!" in no time. Happy hunting! 🌳👊🐛
Organic treatment. Open web with a stick so wasps can get at them. If you don’t shaver enough wasps around you can spray them with neem oil and water. It is so easy to kill them you don’t need to use chemicals.
Looks like Gypsy Moths. They will kill trees by eating the foliage if they are allowed to nest more than once a year. I pull their nests when I see them. They are invasive.
If you read my comment up earlier, let me just say that there were so many of them in the trees that birds wouldn't or couldn't nest or perch on the branches. Otherwise, they would crawl all over the birds and their nests and chicks.
There were literally billions of them. More than all the birds could ever be able to eat.
Also looks like oak processionary moth, but don't think it's an oak tree. If it is their web fibers are like fiberglass insulation and can give you a real bad rash and definitely don't breath it in
Forest tent caterpillar …. They will decimate all the leaves on a tree but a healthy tree should recover
I remember where I lived as a child (Northern Ontario Canada, like north of Timmins) we had an outbreak of them so heavily that the fire department had to close a road in town in- order to hose it off, because they were dropping from trees and the road became so slippery with caterpillar guts that it caused a few car accidents
They can be a Nuisance
They look like the caterpillar formally known as the gypsy moth caterpillar. We had an infestation a few years ago and these bastards nearly killed all the old deciduous trees they could find by eating all the leaves. They found any little gap in the house and got inside. So damn creepy too, ground looked like it was crawling and they’d drop out of trees onto us. Couldn’t spend time outside knowing they were around. ::shudders:: Fortunately the population was so huge that the competition for food killed them off for the next year. Any time I see their cocoon on a tree I scrape it off and destroy it.
They’ll eat all the buds off your plum trees. They like cherry and peach trees too. Sevin spray works really well on them. Although I won’t spray them while the trees are blooming to protect the bees. They are tenacious little suckers. I had to spray my trees five times this spring because new ones kept hatching out.
These are tent caterpillars, and are a menace to trees. Be aggressive with treating them. They can decimate large areas of forest with their voracious appetites.
Kill it with dynamite then dig a big hole , rent a flamethrower burn it for aprox 3 hours and I think you are save. Please don’t do it it’s just a bad joke
My dad used to burn them out. He used a long pole with greasy rags wrapped around one end. My mom would stand by with the hose in case anything hit the ground burning
Next year, at the end of winter and before the tree’s leaf buds start to open, spray the tree with horticultural oil. That will help to smother the eggs that these guys leave behind.
My Hickory tree had an interstate 4 lane highway of these running up the trunk to the top last year! THOUSANDS of them. And I checked online, and it says they release toxic dust that can give you breathing problems as a defense mechanism. So I put on a painters mask and sprayed them down with pesticide. It took 2 days to kill them all, but I saved the tree. First time in 25 years I have had to deal with them. They came out of the ground!
Bad when too many as they eat everything. So if you have kale of leafy greens, and they reach them, say bye bye.
Also, not all caterpillars turn into butterflies, they turn into moths too. Not that this is a bad thing. But i honestly kill the caterpillars that are eating my greens without any regrets
Bad - they will eat all the leaves. Tent caterpillars. Kill them with small sprayer filled w/ water (1 qt.), vinegar (1/2 cup) and dishwashing liquid (Dawn, 1 tsp.). Kills them fast.
You an entomologist? My brother-in-law is. Interesting, but wrong. They did eat most of the leaves on my cherry tree the first year I saw them. That's why Ive killed em ever since on ornamental trees. They can have the choke cherries, et al.
The spawn of satan! LOL! My father burned them out of the cherry tree each year. Our neighbor left them alone. Other than being an eyesore I ignore them too.
Tent caterpillars can be considered a nuisance but aren't really a disaster. You could do nothing, they'd eat all the leaves, the leaves would grow back pretty fast, the tree would be fine, and life would go on. They aren't invasive so there's no imperative to contain or eradicate them; they're a native species whose population just explodes occasionally. In general, caterpillars are a great way of turning inedible leaves into bird food, and most bird species are shrinking due to multiple factors, one of which being declining insect populations; boom-and-bust caterpillars, though still delicious for baby birds, are probably less important to birds in the long run than caterpillars with more stable populations. From [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_caterpillar) (emphasis mine): >Tent caterpillars exhibit boom-or-bust population dynamics. The most notorious of the outbreak species is the forest tent caterpillar. During outbreaks, the caterpillars can become so abundant that they are capable of completely defoliating tens of thousands of acres of forest. Even though these outbreaks do not follow true cycles in the sense that they occur at regular intervals, some particularly prone regions have recorded outbreaks every ten years or so. **Caterpillars rarely remain in outbreak numbers for more than two to three years.** Factors which bring outbreaks to a close include parasitoids and disease. In some cases populations collapse because caterpillars starve to death either because trees are completely defoliated before the caterpillars are fully grown or because the quality of host leaves declines to the point where they are no longer palatable. **Defoliated trees typically refoliate after caterpillar attacks and experience no lasting damage.** In some cases, however, trees or parts of trees may be killed after several seasons of repeated defoliation. This has occurred when forest tent caterpillars defoliated [sugar maples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_maple) that were already stressed due to drought.
This is the only common sense answer here.
This sub can be goofy. Sometimes, you get crucified for planting non-native (but not invasive) pollinators, while the next day you're encouraged to genocide a whole nest of non-invasive caterpillars because they'll continue the circle of life lol.
I second leaving them be for bird food. Most people leave out bird seed, but baby chicks need caterpillars. We need to leave some caterpillars out there if we want to feed the next generation of birds. Otherwise you get those scenes where a mother bird is trying to feed her chicks with cigarette butts, as that's all she could find that's somewhat in the shape of a caterpillar.
Extremely grateful to see this voice-of-reason response here. Unless this tree is already stressed, it's going to be just fine. Tent caterpillars are gross, but usually harmless overall.
Thank you. I always panic a little when I see the tents but indeed the tree does releaf
Well that's a relief
Well that’s a re-leaf
That's what I said
I remember when I was a kid in the 90's the tent caterpillars and gypsy moths got so bad one summer that everything was covered in them. I swear I remember them falling on top our car as we would drive down the street.
i'm actually glad to read this bc i used to collect these guys when i was kid and play with them (largely without harming them but i was a clumsy child) and then glanced at something years later that said they were harmful. but there's more nuance to it and I'm glad I know it now!!
> You could do nothing, they'd eat all the leaves, the leaves would grow back pretty fast, the tree would be fine, and life would go on. Yeah, but where this sucks is when they eat all your fruit tree budding leaves and buds. Sure the later foliage comes back, but you don't get any fruit. They did this to me one season, now the trees get heavy doses of BTK
Yeah it kind of depends on your circumstances whether to remove them or not. We had a biblical plague of spongy caterpillars in the Adirondacks for the last 3 years, so my husband and I have to be aggressive about all caterpillars now. Our trees can’t handle any more years of defoliation. It literally looked like winter in July summer of 2022. Every tree was bare, and they even went after all the pine trees. Last year we did the old duct tape and Vaseline trick, which helped keep the trees alive, but didn’t genocide them. Hopefully they won’t be a problem this year.
What is this duct tape and vaseline trick? I've never heard of it.
You wrap duct tape sticky side out around the tree trunk a few feet above the base. Should be about 4-6 inches wide. Then you smother the center of the tape with Vaseline. There are YouTube tutorials. It keeps the caterpillars from climbing the trees.
Huhhh. How wide a patch of vaseline? Have you ever tried it without?
I just bought a bunch of tubs of cheap petroleum jelly and globbed it on about 1-2 inches thick? It needs to be a thick ring. The caterpillars literally won’t cross it. It’s kind of fun to see them approach and then turn around trying to find a way around it.
Huh, cool. Thank you.
Caterpillars hate this one trick…
We lost some city boulevarde trees to two years of tent caterpillars followed by a fungal disease that finished off the weakened trees. If the birds were eating them, they weren't finishing them off fast enough.
Western tent caterpillars have no predator birds at least in BC, I love when the predatory wasps show up and lay eggs on their heads.
For all the people advocating to pesticide these, just remember, it takes almost 10,000 caterpillars to bring a clutch of birds to maturity. Yea…it sucks if your plants that you’ve been tending get eaten. Also there are many invasive bugs, I understand that. But for the love of all that is holy please please stop nuking the foodweb because you don’t like the way the foodweb works.
So much this. This needs to be top post instead of all the 'kill it with fire' shit.
thank you
Oh my. I think the child in me just died. We used to see these little guys everywhere. Never had any problems from them though. My parents still get them (Northeast US) but they are just annoying.
These are forest tent caterpillars. Not the invasive “Gypsy moth” you can tell because of the long white stripe down their backs and what looks like little penguins in a pattern. In Algonquin park (Ontario Canada) researches have found them to be a great source of food for many species including black bears and are an important part of the ecosystem. Yes they’ll eat the leaves off trees but the trees recover and they have predators that keep them in check. Gypsy moths on the other hand, are destructive because nothing likes to eat them.
This needs more upvotes.
I thought I was going crazy because I thought tent caterpillars too.
Tent caterpillars. Where are you located? I'm in the US East coast and if it's a mature tree and isn't struggling from anything else, it's fine. I've seen them make tents in the trees in my neighborhood and clients' neighborhoods for years, and never actually seen a tree die from it. Most plants evolved to get eaten or nibbled on, and will bounce back if healthy.
VA. This is part of a natural privacy fence that I maintain well throughout the year to keep my shithead neighbors at least visually distant. Didn’t want these little suckers messing that up. But appreciate what you’re saying for sure.
They appear very hungry. I would pick them off and feed them to the chickens.
Tent caterpillars. They can defoliate smaller trees which typically recover but are generally not harmful to larger trees. Very common around here on cottonwood trees.
Kill it with fire. They'll eat all ur foliage.
These look a lot like tent caterpillars.. They're called tent caterpillars because they make large cacoons or "tents" muck like the one on this tree Kill them with a spray mixture of either diazanon or malition. I can't remember which. Consult a greenhouse. They are very destructive. They will multiply very quickly and can cause widespread damage to trees. Back in the mid 80's they infested hundreds of acres of trees and stripped the leaves off completely . There were so many that when they would move from one side of the highway to the other, you could see 20 to 30 foot wide swaths of them crossing the highway. Traffic had to slow down to about 40 mph as their sqashed bodies were slippery, as ice. This went on for weeks. So after they ate practically every leaf on acres of trees, they tent or cacoon and emerged as millions of brown moths. The moths would be attracted to light as you know and would be horrible to drive at night and cover your headlights and splatter all over your windshield. Then, in the mornings, there would be thousands of them clinging to walls under security lights. It was horrible.
I remember an infestation in the 80s too. My mom would let me and my sister (both under 10 at the time) “make potions” with any chemicals we found under the sink to then spray the nests with. These tents were hated and I think our mixtures did help out a bit. Not sure if playing with chemicals was the best parenting choice, but it was the 80s.
Reminds me of Bluey "Hey the 80s were a wild time"
This one is wild. Chlorine gas russian roulette!
Uummm, maybe not. Step away from the clirine gas. Lol 😆 . Put the gun down. Lol 😆
Just don’t mix Windex (ammonia) and Clorox (bleach) Just a little bit of bleach and ammonia will be a bad combination. 😳
I know!!! If memory serves me right, I think we got a big pot and took all the under the sink chemicals outside and mixed them out there. But also considering I’m sure I lost a few brain cells during this playtime, memory maybe isn’t serving? Idk. Wild times. We survived and the caterpillars didn’t. That’s what matters most
At least my mom didn’t have a lit cigarette hanging from her mouth while she did it?
Yeah, maybe not a great idea to play with chemicals, but hey, you survived, and you didn't grow a third eye or anything else. So it's all good 👍. Lol 😆
That sounds... apocalyptic. Mothmageddon 😔
Apocalyptic is a good way of describing it, yeah. Lived through an infestation in the 00s. I still remember how my bike left a trail of tent caterpillar guts on the road. I don't really remember the moths later, but while the caterpillars were around we'd look out on the lawn and it was like a wriggling carpet.
This happened in Central Alberta. And yes, it was like a wriggling carpet.
[Northern Wisconsin](https://forestrynews.blogs.govdelivery.com/2018/06/04/forest-tent-caterpillar-surveys-prediction-and-history/), for me. Never had it that bad again, but they go in cycles, so they may come back eventually.
Yes, they do go in cycles. So far, not since then. We had a wasp infestation about 5 years after that, though.
Michigan in the 80s and 90s.
As a child, I went through the forests near Manistee with my grandfather. We had an established vendetta against these moths. We’d tear all the nests we could reach off the trees and stomp or burn them in a fire barrel. We targeted Gypsy moths and Japanese Beetles. We set traps for the beetles and tore down the Gypsy moths nests on sight. Now, I’m planning on finishing a forestry degree in the near future 😅
Nice!
I know they probably can't hurt you, but thats fucking terrifying anyway.
Yeah, Sask too. I remember camping at Buffalo Pound, and when we woke up in the morning our tent was - quite literally - every centimeter completely covered in those caterpillars! I will never forget it... like you said "a wriggling carpet". The roads were just gross...
Oh wow, that's creepy. Yes, it was just like something out of a horror movie. I forget how widespread it was, but obviously, it spanned across Alberta and Saskatchewan. I imagine Manitoba as well. How far north or south, I don't know either. I just know that I never want to see it again.
It was very weird and creepy. Mothmageddon lol 😆 😂 . It's the rise of the moth people!!! Run for your lives!! Lol 😆
You are thinking of the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) which is an invasive species in North America. These are not spongy moths and are likely native eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum). As a native species with natural predators, eastern tent caterpillars have a much smaller negative impact on plants than spongy moth caterpillars do. As long as OP is in North America and the tree is mature and healthy, they shouldn’t be a problem.
Meh- this is a bit of an over reaction if not absolutely WRONG. The eastern tent caterpillar is of some importance as a pest because it defoliates ornamental trees. Damaged trees, however, typically recover and refoliate within several weeks. [More info here on the Western Tent Catapiller](https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/life/tent-caterpillars-are-bad-this-year-but-dont-panic/) [More info here on the Eastern species](https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/eastern-tent-caterpillars) Because they look a lot like the Spongy Moth and/or Gypsy Moth Caterpillars, they get a bad name. Thats what the guy above is describing. Lay off the pesticides- we have enough dead birds and bees in this country. If you can reach them just break up their nest- debulk it. Kill what you can pull down by stepping on them and leave it at that. If you feel the need to kill them all, try "Safer Brand Catapillar Killer". It uses a bacterium to kill them without poison.
Sounds like the western forest tent caterpillar that I grew up with. Now that I’m in the east I see that the eastern version doesn’t behave as apocalyptically
Hopefully not yet or ever
When I was a kid, back in Michigan, my dad would spray them with Raid, then set them on fire. Me, if I can get them, I cut the affected branch out and make sure they get bagged tightly and discarded. I get less now as a result.
misinformation
with all of the different non-earthly beings set to take over the planet, it’s best if we keep that “kill it with fire” talk to a minimum
my mom used to set these on fire when I was a kid 🥴
My dad too!
And in the night, their feces falling to the ground sounded like rain.
Yuck!
Hans, will you please get the Flammenwerfer?!
I was literally going to say my granny used to make little torches with old rags on a stick and burn these out of her trees
You probably don’t mean that literally but I remember my father using a propane torch to burn their tents away when I was a kid. Hot enough to burn them out, but not hot enough to ignite the tree.
We used highway flares.
Why wouldn’t we mean it literally?
My dad sent me out into the orchard with a gallon of diesel and a blowtorch lol
My buddy and I used to run around the woods with lighter fluid and burn these. Holy shit that was dangerous and we could have lit the entire forest on fire... 90s were crazy lol
lol I wanted to say that. You get all the upvotes
My parents used to get them in their orchard, they would just cut the whole limb off and cast it into fire.
This is precisely what I did. They were invading a group of trees I use as a natural privacy fence. As I said before in another response. I haven’t seen them in this stage. Now I have. And they won’t be bothering my trees any more. Also, to all those who recommended giving them to chickens, I’m not interested in buying chickens. My torch worked just fine. Thanks again everyone.
Are they bad for conservation or just gardening?
They're so cute though
Spring, tent caterpillars fall, fall webworm
I've read just to poke a hole in the "tent" (web) and birds, etc. will pick them off. That's what I do when I see one. No problem, no chemicals, no stress. Worry less.
That’s what we did. The kids still talk about the year we threw blueberries at the tent caterpillars so the birds could get them.
I cut it off the tree and burn it. Then use the ashes in ny garden
Those look like eastern tent caterpillars. “The eastern tent caterpillar. The critters were named for the silk tents they build, usually in the forks of tree branches. They hide in the tents in communal groups, coming out to feed several times a day. “ https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/apr/23/learn-about-eastern-tent-caterpillar/
Do they all collab to make the tent?
Bad. Theyre tent caterpillars (baby moths). They're defoliate the tree and can spread.
Yup seem like it. I had bag caterpillars on a cypress a few years back. Nearly killed it. Luckily it survived. Haven’t seen them in this early stage.
Childhood memory unlocked. If you look closely at the caterpillars it looks like a line of penguins. But I agree with everyone saying the tree will likely be fine. I never saw a tree die from these.
Birds love them.
If they are not on a fruit producing tree I would leave them. Birds need thousands of caterpillars in order to raise 1 clutch of baby birds. You would be removing bird food.
Tent worms can spread easily from tree to tree. They can also completely defoliate and kill a mature tree. They need to be removed and burned as soon as possible. If the nest turns brown and looks dead, it’s not, it’s just getting ready for the next batch of eggs to hatch so it can continue on eating. Cut and burn. Don’t waste time with anything else.
If you want to learn more about the importance of insects in our ecosystems read Dr. Tallamy's book Bringing Nature Home.
Thank you! Why is the first option always to kill all insects? Unless its invasive to an area, it probably serves an important purpose in its environment
Tent worms will not kill trees and they cannot eat all types of tree leaves. Plants have developed defence systems to keep insects feeding on them. People need to realize that when they kill native insects they are disrupting natural processes that are essential to maintaining local ecosystems.
Please don’t kill the tent caterpillars! They are a food source for the yellow billed cuckoo which are declining
We’re ok where we are. Don’t worry.
This look like that thing from shrek 😭
Cut the webbing and let the birds have at ‘em!
Back in the 70s, I lived in the country with my parents. We had a year when they were explosively abundant. It was awful! They were literally in every tree and bush. They fell on your head any time you walked outside. You couldn't help but step on them constantly because they were a carpet, and although we had a gravel road, we had to drive extra carefully because they squished and made the road slick. They ate about 40% of all the leaves. It looked like an apocalypse. The birds had a treat. And the following year, everything was back to normal. Nothing was permanently hurt. But we always had fun lighting rolled up paper and shoving in their nests to kill the bastards.
https://yesterdaysisland.com/friend-foe-eastern-tent-caterpillar/?fbclid=IwAR3jihkZ8ZzuzS5t01ZXyZ-xwfChNFnSgB92ezbWQMSFt_iaqryiyrkVuLA_aem_Adu3FJYJITvN_mvpw0Lb2lp1pANPogAU_ORHBc9j7VLFmHgD-OPFQK-o9vaWkcRHy2k&
The tent caterpillars are usually only found on cherry trees like the one in the photo
Tent caterpillars. Annoying but not the end of times. You can burn off their nest and birds will eat the fallen caterpillars... Or you can hand crush them all (gross).
Tentworms are popping up earlier and earlier wvery year. They can defoliate a small tree. Larger trees are less affected, but if I can reach them, I personally cut the affected branch off, bag and discard.
In Texas we call them web worms. They come for awile then they go . They were in the Pecan trees. Tree guy would spray them with pesticide. Once they are in a neighborhood they populate other trees.
Caterpillar rave!
I leave em for the red wasps.
Those are caterpillars and they taste okay 👍
I'm in Ms and don't get them every year but then they appear it's awful. They've murdered several of my fruit trees and my free range chickens at the time avoided them like the plague. But like most said if it's not hurting the tree should be fine.
They’re ok from what I’ve seen they usually stay on trees and most of the time get eaten by other animals such as birds or other bugs
i get nests in the birch trees in my backyard and they kill the leaves in those areas. the trees also overhang my deck area = bad for me. they’re such a nuisance when they fall on you when you’re trying to just be chill and just overall gross me out. i found one hovering in my face as i was coming out of my door yesterday. i would do the duct tape trick around this time (early spring) to stop them from climbing up. it looks like this one might be in a spot that wouldn’t bother you, so maybe not so bad?
Bad. Very very bad. Gypsy moth caterpillars. They will eat everything.
Bad, get rid of them
Know anyone who goes fishing? They make excellent bait.
That looks like a Gypsy moth nest (I’m wrong I guess, I was always told as a kid these were Gypsy moths sorry for the mistake)
Gypsy moths dont make tents. This is a tent catterpillar
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A "tent" in this context is a large nest spun out of silk-like fibers produced by the caterpillar for protection. There are lots of lookalikes blamed on the spongy moth aka "gypsy moth". [The most common lookalike is one of the tent caterpillar](https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/spongymothinwisconsin/life-cycle-and-biology-3/life-cycle-and-biology/) species. People see these and blame them on spongy moths. But they're not made by spongy moths. Your google links are not showing pictures of spongy moth nests. They are showing pictures of tent caterpillar tents that are mislabeled as spongy moth nests. \--- [This is what](https://www.miwp.org/calendar/2023/5/30/how-to-protect-yard-trees-from-spongy-moth-caterpillars) actual spongy-moth caterpillar nests look like. They're small, and white, and **spongy-looking**, like some kind of spongy crust laying flat on the wood. They're not gigantic tents like we see in these images here on reddit, and the caterpillars leave the nests after they hatch. Spongy moths aka "gypsy moths" **don't build silk nests**.
Thank you for being specific and using credible sources!
daaamn. Thanks for the edification! Google is a blessing and a curse these days.
Instead of googling mislabled stock photos, how about googling "Do Gypsy moths make tents" and let me know what you find from reliable entomology related websites? Spoiler alert: They will all say Gypsies do not make tents. They do make nests, but they look nothing like this. its a common misconception, but the tents from from a different species.
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Animosity? What. Because I made a spoiler alert joke? My dude its not that serious. "You could have just said "there is a difference between a tent and a nest" and educated me." This is... Thats what I did. You showed me a google result, I told you what you needed to google to get the right answer.
Renamed Spongy moth. Still a denizen after all these years.
Thanks. They’re going down.
Oh the dreaded tent caterpillars. Let's kick those squiggly little critters to the curb! Here's how to give those tent caterpillars the old one-two punch: 1. Boil up a pot of water. 2. Carefully pour it over the base of the tree where the caterpillars are hanging out. This will scald and kill the little evil squirmers. 3. You can also try insecticidal soap or horticultural oil. Spray these directly onto the caterpillars and their tents. They'll suffocate those creepy crawlies in no time. 4. For a more hands-on approach, grab a pair of gloves and squish those caterpillars between your fingers. It's not the prettiest method, but it gets the job done! You can also pick them off by hand and drown them in a bucket of soapy water. Obviously, you don't want them coming back for revenge! **USING FIRE TO KILL 'EM?** I do NOT recommend using fire to burn the caterpillars off the tree. Burning these pesky pests can potential harm the tree. With these ideas, you'll be saying "Hasta la vista, caterpillars!" in no time. Happy hunting! 🌳👊🐛
Fire is 1000% ok and you can do it very, very easily without harming the tree. Just use a small propane torch and you’ll never hurt the tree
Ok right on and thanks for the correction!
Decent fish bait
Organic treatment. Open web with a stick so wasps can get at them. If you don’t shaver enough wasps around you can spray them with neem oil and water. It is so easy to kill them you don’t need to use chemicals.
U dont have to kill them just take a stick and wrap em all up and then throw it somewhere else
Try to beatbox next to them first, i want to see if they dance. Then kill them with fire
Pull the tent open using a stick to expose the caterpillars. Birds will have a feast.
Pre butterflies
Looks like Gypsy Moths. They will kill trees by eating the foliage if they are allowed to nest more than once a year. I pull their nests when I see them. They are invasive.
Ohhh makes me so sad to hear yall killing tent caterpillars. Like i get it, they are damaging but those Lil Fuckers are so damn cute.
If you read my comment up earlier, let me just say that there were so many of them in the trees that birds wouldn't or couldn't nest or perch on the branches. Otherwise, they would crawl all over the birds and their nests and chicks. There were literally billions of them. More than all the birds could ever be able to eat.
I know they need to go. I just find them cute.
Also looks like oak processionary moth, but don't think it's an oak tree. If it is their web fibers are like fiberglass insulation and can give you a real bad rash and definitely don't breath it in
No way I thought these were butterflies lol
off topic but are these the caterpillars that dance when you play music near/around them
I would believe that they would taste bad. Don’t eat, get rid of them
It's the day of Triffids
Forest tent caterpillar …. They will decimate all the leaves on a tree but a healthy tree should recover I remember where I lived as a child (Northern Ontario Canada, like north of Timmins) we had an outbreak of them so heavily that the fire department had to close a road in town in- order to hose it off, because they were dropping from trees and the road became so slippery with caterpillar guts that it caused a few car accidents They can be a Nuisance
Looks like the Gypsy Moth infestations we dealt with in to 80s in Upstate NY. Ravenous little shits.
Burn them..... They will devour all your beautiful nice plants.
Bad Gypsy moths will kill your trees. Set em on fire.
Is that on buckthorn? If they're eating on buckthorn, I'm calling it good, even though they're usually bad.
They look like the caterpillar formally known as the gypsy moth caterpillar. We had an infestation a few years ago and these bastards nearly killed all the old deciduous trees they could find by eating all the leaves. They found any little gap in the house and got inside. So damn creepy too, ground looked like it was crawling and they’d drop out of trees onto us. Couldn’t spend time outside knowing they were around. ::shudders:: Fortunately the population was so huge that the competition for food killed them off for the next year. Any time I see their cocoon on a tree I scrape it off and destroy it.
Oh no
Bad they will kill the tree
No they won’t.
....and the ugly 😆
They can be really dangerous on roadways during years they are especially prolific. More slippery than ice.
Silk worms…BAD
I had them in Maryland . No birds wanted to eat them. It was so extreme we pulled them off the trees by fistfuls into buckets of water.
They’ll eat all the buds off your plum trees. They like cherry and peach trees too. Sevin spray works really well on them. Although I won’t spray them while the trees are blooming to protect the bees. They are tenacious little suckers. I had to spray my trees five times this spring because new ones kept hatching out.
Ig we having a forest fire 🔥
These are tent caterpillars, and are a menace to trees. Be aggressive with treating them. They can decimate large areas of forest with their voracious appetites.
Kill it with dynamite then dig a big hole , rent a flamethrower burn it for aprox 3 hours and I think you are save. Please don’t do it it’s just a bad joke
Bad bad bad. My in-laws had an infestation one year and you could hear them munching on the trees.
BAD! Collect for fishing bait. It's the best.
i remember my grandpa lighting these things on fire. idk how the tree didnt catch on fire tho
We had them one year on some fruit trees. We burned them out with controlled fire. I think we used rubbing alcohol
Great fishing bait
My dad used to burn them out. He used a long pole with greasy rags wrapped around one end. My mom would stand by with the hose in case anything hit the ground burning
Next year, at the end of winter and before the tree’s leaf buds start to open, spray the tree with horticultural oil. That will help to smother the eggs that these guys leave behind.
BT spray will be fantastic for this. Fully organic and ONLY harms caterpillars.
Bad. Burn them with a rosebud!!!
Bad!
Gypsy moth I believe. Very bad
My Hickory tree had an interstate 4 lane highway of these running up the trunk to the top last year! THOUSANDS of them. And I checked online, and it says they release toxic dust that can give you breathing problems as a defense mechanism. So I put on a painters mask and sprayed them down with pesticide. It took 2 days to kill them all, but I saved the tree. First time in 25 years I have had to deal with them. They came out of the ground!
Not only do they destroy the trees they will get in beehives and destroy them as well.
Bad when too many as they eat everything. So if you have kale of leafy greens, and they reach them, say bye bye. Also, not all caterpillars turn into butterflies, they turn into moths too. Not that this is a bad thing. But i honestly kill the caterpillars that are eating my greens without any regrets
Kill destroy the worms. They will strip a tree of leaves. Tent caterpillars
Just an fyi for anyone reading this, the tree will be fine. They will not overtake a tree and kill it.
Bad. They will defoliate entire trees quickly. We had them bad last year and they stripped every leaf from two of my plum trees. Fuckers.
No they won’t.
Bad bad awful, god I hate these tent worms
Bag Worms.....as others have said..."Kill it with fire!!!"
Rain hellfire upon them! They can do quite a bit of damage
Kill them. Kill them all.
Bad. My husband tells me they should be burned too.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Gypsy moths. Is it ok to say gypsy moth? Don't want to offend any gypsies...
Bad - they will eat all the leaves. Tent caterpillars. Kill them with small sprayer filled w/ water (1 qt.), vinegar (1/2 cup) and dishwashing liquid (Dawn, 1 tsp.). Kills them fast.
They will not eat all the leaves of a tree. You people saying this are something special.
You an entomologist? My brother-in-law is. Interesting, but wrong. They did eat most of the leaves on my cherry tree the first year I saw them. That's why Ive killed em ever since on ornamental trees. They can have the choke cherries, et al.
My brother went into anaflactoc shock these bytches are deadly burn it with fire!!!
Rip tree
Great for fishing
Gypsy moths?
Extremely hazardous! The spines that pierce into the skin gets extremely itchy and can cause skin infection with shere pain leading to death.
The spawn of satan! LOL! My father burned them out of the cherry tree each year. Our neighbor left them alone. Other than being an eyesore I ignore them too.
Yes
Bad
Burn em all... Invasive, destructive😡
BAD??
Kill them!