A friend of mine that lives in BridgeCreek (a small community between Chickasha & Oklahoma City), encountered them last week. They started on a Cedar @ the corner of her house, then moved on to some Oaks. This week, she said not only did they stop them, but were finding lots of dead ones. I believe they used an Ortho pesticide. Here in Norman, we just discovered Web Worms on our RedBud in the back. Our acreage backs up to a heavily wooded lot so I wasn't really surprised. We've cut the limb, burned it and sprayed the rest of the tree with malathyon (sp?). No new signs of them yet.

The web worms are likely the Fall Webworm which is fairly bad this year. This first generation is complete as far as egg hatch is concerned, so there will not be any more showing up other than what is already out there. Some are already full grown and some webs have just become visible here. The moths fly in and lay the eggs usually on the open (exposed) sides of trees. You can often reach up and pull the web down by hand getting almost all of the worms with it. If you just toss them on the ground, they will die there even if you do not squish them.

They are called Fall Webworms because the second generation eggs will hatch near the beginning of fall and can defoliate the tree causing it to try to leaf out again and then be injured when it freezes.

Scott...
We are seeing some webworms on pecan trees here, but on the spreading evergreens I have one shrub literally infested with bagworms, those nasty little things that make their cocoon out of the needles. I am spraying with soapy water, but thinking about cutting and burning the shrub. There were hundreds of the cocoons on this shrub,....too many to pick off and destroy. It has nearly defoliated it. These are one of the most disgusting insects of all disgusting insects.

Barbara

Rita, is that you?

Spraying for bag worms at this stage is pretty well worthless. Pick them off, and put them in "gasp" a coffee can full with gasoline. Will knock them right off.

Moni

I have had very good luck preventing webworms by applying a ring on Tanglefoot all the way around the trunk of whatever trees usually have trouble with them. Do this in the spring as that's when the larvae climb up the trunk from the ground.

Before I started doing this, I was spraying my two young pecan trees and one of them died. I have heard that you can just open up the web and that the birds will come and eat the worms but I haven't had good luck with that method either.

These are definitely BAG WORMS and not web worms.

And yes, we are just picking them off our young Green Giant trees and the other trees.

I just wondered if this is a local oddity---the fact that they are on all these other tree species---as we've not seen that before.

OKWriter,

Bag worms will move to other tree species when the infestation is very heavy.

Since the discussion involves both the bag worms you mentioned in your original post and the web worms that have been mentioned in subsequent posts on this thread, I'd like to point out that Bt is a good organic control, but it only works on bagworms if you spray it while they're still small, so probably in May most years. On fall webworms, though, for those of you affected by them, you can spray webworms with Bt any time you see them. Actually, you spray the foliage they're eating and they eat it and subsequently die.

We have neither pest at our place here in Love County (so far this year), although some years we have one or the other or even both, but I don't think we've ever had a heavy infestation like the bagworm infestation you're seeing this year.

Now that I've said we don't have any here, they'll probably pop up everywhere in the next week just to prove me wrong.

Dawn

My other reply was to the part of p-mac's post about the webworms. I was wanting him/her to know that there would not be any more webworms showing up on the redbud tree this month so there is no need to spray it again unless they show up in the fall

I had bagworms (by which I mean the inch-or-so long little worms inside a cocoon made out of the tree foliage) about this time 2 years ago. They infested my evergreen shrub and started to spread to a Japanese Maple nearby. Unfortunately, I had to pick every single one off by hand and I then poured gas over them and burnt them. I then sprayed everything with BT to get the ones I might have misssed. They eventually all went away and my trees were fine.

I was not familiar with bag worms, so now that I have read the info I will have to check out the cedar trees. Actually I have two cedars that the electric company was supposed to come cut, but they haven't done it yet. I want them gone so they don't provide a habitat for the ticks.

We are getting some web worms in this area. As we drove to town today we noticed them in a lot of trees, but mostly the pecan trees.

Yes, I have been told that bagworms will lay from 200 to 1000 eggs in each of those coooon sacks they produce.

I certainly believe that now; especially after my having to spend several days of repeatedly checking my hedge of Arborvitae Golden Globes.

I do not grow any junipers on my property, so most years I never saw any bagworms. And my little Golden Globes did fine the last two growing seasons with no damage from bagworms, but this year was a differnt story.

One of my Golden Globes began looking like it wasn't getting enough water. So since I did not know to check for bagworms at that time, I instead put a slow running hose beneath the shrub to give the soil a good soaking. Only a few days later did I see the bagworms. Every single branch had what surprised me, and made me wonder if they really were bagworms; previously I had only seen the inch or more long and fat cocoons. These things attached to nearly every single branch of my Golden Globe shrub were just under a half inch long. They looked every bit like the shape and texture of those larger bagworm cocoons I new about, except they were so small in size. No wonder I did not notice them on my shrub before most of the folliage died.

While picking all the myriad, of ones, I found off, only two were the normal larger 1 to 3 inch long size I used to be more familiar with seeing.

All those tiny bagworms killed every bit of the folliage on my 18" x 18' sized shrub. The next day I even found a few bagworms on two or three Golden Globes on either side of that worst defolieated one.

But my Thuja plicata x Standishii 'Green Giant' trees do not have any bagworms. This cultivar of tree is supposed to be resistant to bagworms. So if Okwriter found bagworms on her Green Giants, either she does not really have the western variety of Cedar parentage Green Giants that I have, or she has a some other type Arborvitae cultivar.

Last year I purchased two narrow growing Arborvitae shrubs which were supposed to grow only about 10 to 12 feet tall, but they only lived until we hit a dry period with excessive heat last year. Once I was certain they could not regreen, and I pulled them out; that is when I noticed only one or two of the larger bagworm cocoons on each of them. Certainly not enough to appear to have caused those shrubs to die, so I did not really give those bagworms a second thought as I was bagged the dead shrubs up for the trash.

But now I am wondering if it was actually those bagwoom cocoons that I saw last year, which sourced the massive invasion that 3 or 4 of my Golden Globes got attacked with this summer.

Still even the screen of my Green Giants, which is growing much closer to where I had pulled out one of those dead shrubs last year; has not become infested.True to my Green Giant's reputation, not a single bagworm has been found on them up at any time, over the last four years, since I first planted them, to this time in 2009...

We have about 100 thuja green giant, and they do get bag worms in Dallas TX (in clay soil, dry, hot). Treat with bifenthrin insecticide or the bag worms can kill entire trees. Significant brown damage even when caught under 1/2 cm size. Spray around May 1 if you had problems the prior year. Will have to use a systemic such as Imidicloprid soon since they are about 15' tall and cannot spray much higher. That worked via spray; not sure if it will if watered in via the roots. Bifenthrin works great if you can get to them (100% dead next day). Home Depot type products not near as effective, particularly once they get big. Worth the trouble to find bifenthrin!

I used BT successfully on some kind of Tent Caterpillar that was decimating my peach tree early this spring. I kept poking holes in the tent with a stick and picking them off. Eww. Their nasty caterpillar crap fell all over me. They always made a new tent the next day, and by the time I "discovered" BT (I am committed to using only organic solutions), they were all over the tree, and many branches were just stripped.

I sprayed the BT on all of the leaves one evening right before sunset. Within days they were gone, never to return. It was like a miracle!

When I see web worms, I get out the propane torch and burn the web right on the tree. It works well, there's no insecticide issues and I don't have to sacrifice the limb.

Bag worms bring back memories...it was my job to pick them off our evergreen shrubs that outlined our yard back in Missouri. Such joy! :)

The following message is what was posted on a local nursery FB page (Dawn was right, (like always) to use BT

--BAGWORMS are starting to occur !!! "BT" is short for Bacillus thuringiensis, (OMRI approved) is a naturally occurring bacterium that is lethal to most leaf-eating caterpillars. Bt is HARMLESS TO ALL OTHER INSECTS, ANIMALS, AND HUMANS ! Liquid form to SPRAY: Bagworms, Tent Caterpillers ect. DUST Form DIPEL): Dust for worms on Vegetables, & Flowers. SOLID Form (DUNKS): Use in standing water for Mosquito Larvae.

For web worms:

We have large pecan trees and the webworms just love these trees. DH has a mop that he powders with BT and hits the tents with it breaking the web and dousing the worms. It is nice to have the long handle for reaching the higher branches (obviously we can not get nearly to the top of the trees) and the means for holding the powder. They are dead quickly.

Using more toxic methods may be harmful to not only the eco system around your home but to you personally. Your kidneys, lungs etc can be seriously compromised and the effects may not show up for years.

imp

I discovered bagworms tonight on a maple tree and an oak tree. The bagworms aren't very large, most not any longer than an inch. I picked off a few that were hanging low, but the maple tree is way too tall to pick off very many, and won't be easy to spray because of the height. Are there any options if the tree is too tall to spray? Or do you just spray as high as you can and hope for the best?

Suzie