Sorry to be so late getting back. We were out of town most of last week.

I am guessing you are talking about fall webworms. I have not seen much in the way of bag worms on my trees. If it is the webworms then they are pretty easily controlled with a spray that they consume that makes them molt prematurely and die. Unfortunately what I use (Intrepid) costs a few hundred dollars per gallon although I can spray over a thousand trees with that gallon.

The webworms are really bad this year here, but the first generation will not do any more damage and the second generation will not start doing damage until late August. For bag worms I think the same type spray might work but I have never researched it because I have only seen a few of them on trees.

Jay, spinosad might be effective. I've seen it on the spinosad label. I believe it was webworms or bag worms. I have never used it for them. My pecans have them right now, too.

Thanks to both of you. She is going in this morning to the co-op and see what she can get. She removed many by hand last week. They can defoliate a tree.

The webworms are the worst this year that I've ever seen. They were present on the fruit trees in huge numbers in spring, but I never saw them in any other trees, including in our native pecan trees. On the fruit trees, I sprayed their webs directly every time a new one popped up. I alternated Spinosad and a pyrethrin spray, and the pyrethrin performed much better. It probably would have performed even better if I had sprayed the whole tree instead of just the webs containing the small caterpillars, but I hate using sprays so just concentrated it on the webs themselves. It was rewarding to come out the next day and see all the day webworms still within their webs. I've even found a lot of eastern tent caterpillars in my veggie garden this year, which is unusual, and have gleefully cut each one in half with my scissors like some sort of homicidal caterpillar maniac. Let that be a lesson to them to stay out of my veggie garden!

If I had bagworms, I'd probably use a product that contained one of the many insect growth regulators, if there is a homeowner version labeled for use with bagworms. We've never had bagworms on anything except cedar trees and once we took out all the cedars within an acre of the house, I never have seen another bagworm (not that I go into the woodland searching for them on the cedars in there).

Jay, I hope y'all find something that works in your situation. First grasshoppers, now bagworms. What's next?

Dawn

I hate spraying anything this time if year that kills on contact. There are so many beneficials that will be needed in August. The growth regulators are the way to go but I stress again that it is too late to stop webworm damage for this generation. They have already done all the damage they will do, although some colonies may still be in the tree. You will do nothing for the tree. Save your effort for the next generation in late August.

How I remember bag worms on arborvitae and my dad spraying with malathion. One of the reasons I am organic, I hated the smell of that stuff. Of course, I thought bag worms were disgusting, too. I hate cedar trees, too, partly because of bag worms, partly because of cedar apple rust. Ha, you really opened a can of worms for my childhood memories.