Mark Meckes
16th December 2002, 04:13 AM
(Link redirect note: See this thread for Phyllostachys aurea: Hole in culm mystery (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=523))
Here in this part of the world (US), in mid to late summer, webworm caterpillers build and congregate in silken nests at the ends of high branches in cherry, pecan and other trees, and though they never kill the tree, they can stunt it's growth, and be an unsitely mess, including a daily deluge of `fresh' caterpillar droppings. They're voracious feeders!
If you grow, or have access to a long bamboo pole, it is an ideal implement for removing the web.
This is especially so if your home-grown, long tapered pole has been trimmed at the top, leaving stubs of the branches protruding about an inch (a couple cm).
Then hold the pole up to the the web in the tree and start twisting...
The branch stubs will grab the strong web, caterpilars and all, and wrap it up like cotton candy.
The silk web is strong stuff, and you have to be careful that you don't wrap up the whole tree branch!
Do this in the early evening or early morning, when the caterpillars have returned to, or have not left their nest.
I didn't take a picture while I was removing the webs, but here is a pic of a web removed from our Pecan tree, wrapped on the tip of a bamboo pole. ...
http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/data/531/thumbs/1Webwrm-667.JPG (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=72)
Once down, I stomp on it...sorry.. if I had chickens, they would have a snack, but instead I feed it to our other livestock (earthworms = compost).
Mark
Here in this part of the world (US), in mid to late summer, webworm caterpillers build and congregate in silken nests at the ends of high branches in cherry, pecan and other trees, and though they never kill the tree, they can stunt it's growth, and be an unsitely mess, including a daily deluge of `fresh' caterpillar droppings. They're voracious feeders!
If you grow, or have access to a long bamboo pole, it is an ideal implement for removing the web.
This is especially so if your home-grown, long tapered pole has been trimmed at the top, leaving stubs of the branches protruding about an inch (a couple cm).
Then hold the pole up to the the web in the tree and start twisting...
The branch stubs will grab the strong web, caterpilars and all, and wrap it up like cotton candy.
The silk web is strong stuff, and you have to be careful that you don't wrap up the whole tree branch!
Do this in the early evening or early morning, when the caterpillars have returned to, or have not left their nest.
I didn't take a picture while I was removing the webs, but here is a pic of a web removed from our Pecan tree, wrapped on the tip of a bamboo pole. ...
http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/data/531/thumbs/1Webwrm-667.JPG (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=72)
Once down, I stomp on it...sorry.. if I had chickens, they would have a snack, but instead I feed it to our other livestock (earthworms = compost).
Mark