you can hand spray them with a light pyrethrum spray ...

but .. as you note.. they eat last years needles ... so its not really that big a deal ... they would have fallen off next year anyway ...

pine sawfly i believe ...

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=pine+sawfly&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Not sure where you are located, but in New England I had serious damage done to the NEW growth on many of my conifers by cankerworm. They are those green little inch worms that hang from webs. I have never experienced these before this season, so I thought they would only attach the deciduous trees.. by the time I realized they were eating all the fresh push on the conifers, it was too late. I sprayed them with Bacillus thuringiensis, but it didn't seem to help... I think I was too late, you got to spray them early

Lots of stunted new growth on my trees and mangled looking needles that remain. These left the old growth alone though, just the fresh, nutritious, growth was on the menu.

Top shoots of 'Gold Drift' stripped.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/26/tiny-famished-winter-moth-caterpillars-wreaking-havoc-trees/aOm7Vyw9kXOpNGamwI5igJ/story.html

Were they Pine Sawfly larvae?

tj

tj , who are you asking

golden , you are describing sawfly larvae,,,sevin also works

I go on sawfly patrol every year in May,,,,Haven't seen one this year,,,wet & cold ?

ron

Yea...I wasn't sure who that was directed at. My damage is definitely Cankerworm. I've had sawfly on my Mugo pines before, but these are new, different, and overwelming