Hungry, Hungry Caterpillars!
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We have an all black wooly bear and one where the skin is brown with black wool. They are everywhere this year. I’ve always called them wooley bear but they lack the band that you show. Any ideas as to what I am seeing? They travel on top of the grass like a boat in water!
I used to find Caterpillars of different species in Conn.; I don't see as many caterpillars these days; or Butterflies;
I had a Citrus tree out doors, two years ago, leaves were being eaten by about five of these green caterpillars.
I live in the Piedmont of South Carolina, and I get a lot of these in my pecan trees, every year, and they eat so many leaves, that it has the tree almost bare of leaves, and ugly. And the trees are too tall to get to them. What are some ways to get rid of them? I don't want to put any "man-made" chemicals on/in the ground, so is there an organic product I could find, to use, to kill the pupa? Thanks for any help on the issue. I love learning about all these insects in my yard, especially with the pictures of them, that makes it much easier to identify them.
When I can't stand looking at the webs any longer I resort to the stick-with-a-nail-in-it cure. I just poke the stick into the nest, twist as much of the nest as I can around the stick, and pull it down. The nail, positioned at a right angle to the stick will keep the nest from sliding off before you get it down. A dunk in a bucket of soapy water kills the caterpillars. Helpful hint - don't stand underneath the nest while doing this or you will get rained on with caterpillars and their poop! The ones that fall from the nest may climb back up the tree to re-infest it so I stomp on those wayward buggers. Not knowing how tall your pecan trees are, this might not work. You could try using a high pressure hose to knock the nests down. You can ward off next year's caterpillars by looking for their shiny brown eggs on the bare limbs over the winter and scraping them off. Another thing that might help is to inoculate the soil around the trees with beneficial nematodes which will eat the pupae living in the soil.