We've seen the little beggars, their favorite victims are arborvitaes, junipers, spruce, pine and on and on. We see the bags hanging all over the host plants. Surely no one on this forum has bagworms, we keep our plants free from insect pests, right? Knowing something about the life cycle is an important part to understand when controlling insect pests. It only takes one bag with eggs in it to overwinter on your plant and you have an infestation. When they first hatch they can travel via the wind but afterwards they start making the bag, very little traveling. (females are wingless) They are actively growing and eating in May, June and early July and they can be controlled with something like Thuricide. After they mature inside the bag they stop eating and spraying will not control them. Pull them off by hand and squeeze them.
PULL THEM OFF BY HAND, DON'T CUT THEM OFF
PULL THEM OFF BY HAND, DON'T CUT THEM OFF
PULL THEM OFF BY HAND, DON'T CUT THEM OFF
PULL THEM OFF BY HAND, DON'T CUT THEM OFF
Don't be a weenie, pull them off by hand and squeeze them to kill the worm inside. Can you see the bag in the pic below? Notice how well camouflaged they are? My ancient Hinoki Cypress was so big, I couldn't reach all the bags even on a ladder.
Thuricide is labled for leafeating caterpillars like bagworms. Vegetable gardeners are familiar with it because they use it for cabbage and similar plants. It contains
Bacillus thuringiensis. It is senseless to "nuke" the whole plant with another insecticide when Thuricide will do the trick. The host plants named above are also homes for many beneficial insect & birds. It will wash off in the rain so plan to repeat spray, maybe 3 or more times.
Interesting, I have never seen bagworms in a wild setting, only in a cultivated setting.
Go over your plants carefully, move the branches around and get every single bag, otherwise you will have an infestation next year.
Do you know of any natural predators of bagworm?
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