Monday, July 26, 2010

Aliens Are Attacking My Shrubs!

These pesky alien-like creatures protected in their camoflaged cocoon emerge in the evening to feast on my arborvitae trees.  They are bagworm caterpillars and they are killing my trees. We have a row of arborvitae trees that line our driveway and so far, we have had to replace two of them which were devoured by bagworms and by the looks of it, one more will have to be replaced. If we are lucky, we will be able to control the infestation by spraying insecticide or simply plucking them off the trees. The cocoons that the bagworms have formed look like pine cones, so they easily blend in looking like part of the tree.

The bagworms will continue to grow and feast and molt until August, so we have to inspect the trees daily for new cocoons. Unfortunately, the presence of bagworms often goes unoticed until they are mature and the damage is extensive! Wish me luck in my extermination efforts!





  

6 comments:

Janis said...

Yuck! how gross those things are. Yep you have to be on the lookout for these little monsters, they can destroy lots of trees if left unchecked. Good luck getting rid of them. Great macros

gayle said...

We have had those before. Not sure what my husband did. I think one year he hung some type of bags around. Good luck!!

Pamela said...

well that is downright ugly!

Faye said...

Isn't arborvitae one of their favorite buffets? Very discouraging when something like this hits a mature planting. The replacement shrub looks out of place. Hopefully, you'll win the war, if not the battle. . .

Driftwood and Pumpkin said...

Ewwww...I hate those bagworms. We have a life or death fight with them every year!

Saimi said...

Good luck in your extermination efforts! I too am on the battle field with Box Elder bugs infesting my Zucchini. I'm determined to win. I think I have the bugs under control, but man they lay a ton of eggs!

Anyway Stopping by from Cheeseboys blog!

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