Bagworms?

[Smiles Jr.]

The only name I have ever heard for these little guys is Bagworm. Evidently we have an extreme infestation of them on a few of our youngest evergreen trees. I have picked 291 of them off of one 10 ft. tall Blue Spruce we have growing in our side yard.

Does anyone care to share their knowledge of the lifecycle of these moths? What they look like when mature? What they like to eat in the caterpillar stage? Moth stage?

What kind of organic control is available? What kind of chemical control is available?

Thanks.

 

[hoodat]

We get a lot of those in San Diego, especially on our Italian cypress. BT usually does the job on them.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Thanks but what is BT?

 

[i_am2bz]

The only name I have ever heard for these little guys is Bagworm. Evidently we have an extreme infestation of them on a few of our youngest evergreen trees. I have picked 291 of them off of one 10 ft. tall Blue Spruce we have growing in our side yard.

But who's counting....??

Oops, sorry...probably not very funny for someone with so many pests...:/

 

[thistlebloom]

Thanks but what is BT?

BT is bacillus thuriengiensis, a bacterial disease that affects insects. Hoodats right about it working on your bagworms. If you garden organically it's a good "natural" insecticide to use.
I think you can find it at feed stores and some hardware stores, it's pretty common.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

The only name I have ever heard for these little guys is Bagworm. Evidently we have an extreme infestation of them on a few of our youngest evergreen trees. I have picked 291 of them off of one 10 ft. tall Blue Spruce we have growing in our side yard.

But who's counting....??

Oops, sorry...probably not very funny for someone with so many pests...:/

I didn't count them, my little GD5 did. She won't touch one but she is absolutely excited to see them and to sit and count every last one of them. She kept saying things like "grandpa, grandpa, what comes after 50" "grandpa, grandpa, what comes after 100" "grandpa, grandpa, what comes after 150".

BT is bacillus thuriengiensis, a bacterial disease that affects insects. Hoodats right about it working on your bagworms. If you garden organically it's a good "natural" insecticide to use.
I think you can find it at feed stores and some hardware stores, it's pretty common.

Thanks.

 

[Carol Dee]

Thanks but what is BT?

BT is bacillus thuriengiensis, a bacterial disease that affects insects. Hoodats right about it working on your bagworms. If you garden organically it's a good "natural" insecticide to use.
I think you can find it at feed stores and some hardware stores, it's pretty common.

Will it also work on hornworm? We had a BIG problem with them in our tomaotes and eventulluy the sweet peppers. Nasty things. ugh.

 

[lesa]

Caroldee, I was just reading a tip in Mother Earth News. The reader claimed that borage planted between tomatoes made her hornworm problem disappear....I love planting borage and I have never had a hornworm (might be my location) but couldn't hurt to try!

 

[annageckos]

We had a bunch last year, my bearded dragon loved them. None this year, kinda disappointed. All we did was pick them off as we found them. They didn't do any visible damage to the tree.

 

[momofdrew]

BT is good for just about any catapiller...