Some insects that feed on the plants in our landscapes are not that damaging but some of them, if allowed to go unchecked, can ruin a plant’s ornamental value or actually kill it. We are not necessarily concerned about some caterpillars that do a little nibbling on a few leaves and then turn into a beautiful butterfly or moth that help to pollinate the plants that provide much of the food we eat. We need to let these ‘friends’ eat their few leaves and develop into adults for us to enjoy and to fulfill nature’s purpose.

What we need to be concerned about are insects that harm our plants and give us nothing of value in return. These bad critters don’t produce anything we can eat, like honey, and they don’t pollinate flowers that will produce fruit or vegetables that are edible. These harmful bugs destroy the foliage by eating it or sucking the juices out of it to the point that the plant is so weakened that it eventually dies or is unsightly.

Some examples of insects that cause major damage are mites that can devastate spruce, junipers and boxwood and many others. Then there are the borers like the Emerald Ash Borer(EAB) that has killed millions of ash trees and borers that affect dogwoods, peach and cherry trees. The harmful insect we want to talk about here is the Bag Worm, not to be confused with Tent Caterpillar or the Fall Web Worm which are annoying but do not cause any long lasting damage to trees.

The Bag Worm’s “home”, pictured here, is many times mistaken for a pine cone on spruce, pines, arborvitae and other evergreens. Mother Nature has provided this insect with a tough casing made of a very strong silk like thread and some of the foliage from the plant it is devouring. This “home” moves along with the young worm and is very well camouflaged. The casing is so impervious that pesticides used to kill the insect will not penetrate it. If you are going to try and eliminate this critter you can manually pick the casings off the plant or spray / dust with something like Sevin when the insect is young and coming out of its casing to munch on your plant. The young insect moves about by swinging from plant to plant, soon after hatching, on a silk like thread that blows in the wind. Timing is critical to control this insect. If the bagworm is not controlled when young, while it is coming out of its “bag” to feed, the adult matures in the “bag” and overwinters there until the spring when the female emerges and lays eggs that hatch and begin the process of eating your plants again until they are completely defoliated and usually must be removed.

How many bag worms can you find this summer?

Meadow View Growers

www.meadowview.com

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