This morning I took 30 of these buggers off one little tree--all the tree's new growth had been skeletonized before I saw them. These caterpillars become a brown night-flying moth. Judging by my yard, the moths are prolific reproducers.
The caterpillars are a
major pest for Texas Mountain Laurels--they can defoliate a tree if
left unchecked. Birds don't eat them because of the alkaloids absorbed from the plants. The only natural enemies I've seen (besides
my fingers) have been fire ants and assassin bugs, but your tree may not survive a combo of genista and drought while you wait for assassin rescue.
The caterpillars look hairy (easier to see in the picture if you look at the background caterpillars) but don't sting. If you're finicky, wear gloves.
8 comments:
Is that their only host plant, or are they not picky? I'm sure I've seen them here, but I don't have Texas Mountain Laurel.
Oh, I can SO relate to your caterpillar problem. They have stripped our beautiful Mountain Laurel tree. They look very similar to "tent caterpillars". I don't mind feeding the caterpillars that turn into butterflies, but I guess all caterpillars got to eat:)
Hi, Kathleen! Indeed, we featured this on CTG recently since they can defoliate a tree while you make coffee. But thank you for this additional insightful info! And I also thank you for this because our genistas have come and gone for now (though I'll go check mine right this minute, in this totally bizarre year). Interesting to know that you're being invaded now; ours our usually earlier. I'll make a note of it. Thank you!
Oh that's scary for me, i can't still touch them even with gloves! Grrr! We have lots of moth larvae too, which are even more scary than those, bigger, longer and more hairs. And they settle together in big patches on trunks of trees at daytime and devour all leaves at night. The ground below becomes a yucky area in the morning after they excrete all their eaten leaves. Moths are really more devastating than butterflies.
Our trees were attacked this year as well. We tried a non-ionizing surfactant plus the mildest spray we could find on our laurels - we were concerned the caterpillars would kill the tree, they got set up so quickly and ate so much. Most of them were way too high for us to reach though I admit - once I got a good close-up look I was glad not to have to try to pick them all off. Ugh plus.
Such small creatures who do such big damage!
I think of your blog post anytime my newly hung feeder successfully entices a hummingbird. Or two. Proud of myself for consistently maintaining it (cleaned out mold from the little "flower" centers, even).
Hi Kathleen,
We have/had them, too. On our recently planted Mountain Laaurel I luckily discovered them early enough to save the plant. I must admit, though, that I didn't pluck them off but used and insecticide. There are some on our older tree, too, but luckily only a very few and they seem to have died - or developed - and they have not eaten away too mnay of the leaves. This tree, btw, would be too big for me to reach up all the way to pluck them off or spray them. Thus I'm happy they weren't out there in numbers.
Best regards - at present from lovely Fredericksburg, lokking for a place to relocate to,
Pit
P.S.: We've found our future dream home! :)
I noticed a new infestation this morning. I have 5 smalll trees in my backyard here in the Plum Creek subdivision in Kyle. Just sprayed with Thuricide today. Will go out and check for survivors now before they have a chance to spin any more webs of destuction overnight. I really dislike these creatures intensely!!
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