Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bag Worms

My husband calls these bag worms. There is a patch of them in our little apple tree that he will be spraying soon. I see these mostly in wild persimmons that grow beside the roads.My new blog PICTURE THIS (a no comment blog) Our current theme is WHEELS. If you'd like to join send me an e-mail.

30 comments:

Andrea said...

Great close up shot. I call them caterpillars. Is the little black dots eggs or poop?

dot said...

That's a good question. I don't know. I saw the web up in a tree and zoomed in on it. I couldn't get up there to see what the black stuff was.

Lilli & Nevada said...

What a neat name for them, like Andrea i call them caterpillars, do they turn into butterflies? Climb that tree and find out if its eggs or poop? LOL ok i feel funny tonight. Sorry Do NOT CLIMB that tree.

Carletta said...

Great Shot Dot! These guys always make me queasy though. My Dad used to burn them out of our apple trees.

I had to laugh at the comments so if I may - I'm pretty sure they are tent caterpillars and it is poop and they will eventually leave this tent and spin a cocoon and turn into a moth.
Please don't climb the tree!

Anonymous said...

excellent closeup.

AVCr8teur said...

Interesting creepy crawly find in the woods. It would be interesting to see them go into metamorphosis.

Anonymous said...

I never used chemicals if I can avoid it. On these I always used a pole with a newspaper wadded up on the end and set on fire. It takes care of them without any leftover residue.

judi/Gmj said...

Great Shot! I'm with Carletta, tent catepillars and it's poo. They are very distructive to trees and my nerves. I can tolerate earth worms but catepillers of any kind do me in. Specially tomatoe worms!

June said...

I often see these from the road but have never had a close-up view before. Great shot.

mrsnesbitt said...

Caterpillars here too! I remember lots like these last year on my nastercums. (spelling wrong!)

Nature eh?
Bring on the garden birds!

Pappy said...

Hi Dot, I've heard that wasps kill bag worms. So, don't kill the wasps. You can have one or the other, but not both. They are not as plump as Catalpa worms.

Front Porch Society said...

Ewwww........they look icky!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic close up.

Small City Scenes said...

Tent caterpillars and get rid of them. They can strip of tree of all leaves in no time flat. The moth lays the eggs in the fall and in the spring you have what you call 'bag worms'. Burn 'em. MB

Anonymous said...

We have those bag worms everywhere on the farm this year. More than usual. They can eat some leaves up too. My husband tried one for fishing bait this weekend and the fish didn't like them either.
Good picture.

Happyone said...

We always called them tent caterpillars.
When I was a kid I used to pick them up and let them crawl up my arms. I liked how they tickled. I don't think I'd like to do that now though.
Great shot of them.

DeeMom said...

Great picture...nasty worms...

Dewdrop said...

I used to get those in a tree by my yard. Nasty moth larvae, tore the tree up.

FO - 2 said...

That`s HUGE! So many hungy caterpillar`s.....
Nice shot.
I think Oldmanlincoln`s advice sounds great.

Reviekat said...

OOOO - those things always gave me the creeps as a child, especially when they would drop on my head!!

Revee

KOSTAS said...

Splendid photograph, I have a entire line same, the caterpillars these they leave the trees that are given birth without leaves. Very good post!

Texas Travelers said...

Tent caterpillars or Fall Webworms and they turn into a small white or brown moth, depending on the time of year and variety.

Great shot but it made me want to spray my monitor with soapy water.

Tom said...

I have two trees at the back of my house ... Silver Birch.. each day two little Blue Tit birds check out how the bugs are doing and will make sure they next and the yound hatch as the caterpillars appear. Backwards and forward all day feeding up to 20 young ones.
This is a great capture Dot..
I tried posting a comment yesterday but I had some trouble on the blogs..

UP said...

Dot, Thanks for telling me about the Picture This No Comment Blog.

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

Yak Beeeh Dot!
I hAte worms,
but....Your photography is GREAT!!!
Imight dream of this ugly animals :( but....Welldone!!!!

(about the blog with wheels: I think I've nothing to show, but only our/my driving by bike or car....but thats not wht you mean right?)

Ana Canuto said...

Try waiting in order to see what kind of butterfly they will change in.

Ana/Brasil.

EG CameraGirl said...

EW! We have these too. They LOVE tone of my crabapple trees.

My husband calls them web worms. ;-)

Kerri Farley said...

Great close up, Dot! I don't know what they are called - but I see them a LOT! Some years more than others though. I hope they don't damage your tree!

TR Ryan said...

If he sprays - make sure he removes the dead worms - birds love to eat these things and they can die from the poison as well. Pesticides stay in the food chain all the way up...

I usually just cut the branch off below the webbing and put in a plastic bag and the bag in the trash.

And yes, that is definitely poop.

Anonymous said...

Lord, dear, those aren’t bag worms. Those are Eastern tent caterpillars — apparently a national convention of Eastern tent caterpillars, in fact: “Tenting Tonight in B’s Back Yard: Eastern Tent Caterpillar Conference 2009.” Tent caterpillars will eat up your trees, ma’am. Unless you have a national bird conference there, too, to eat them up first. Put out some half-filled bird feeders on the trees where the caterpillars are massing and watch the birds have dinner and dessert. And possibly drinks and dancing.

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