Anne’s Garden

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.

Caterpillar Infestation

May 22, 2007 at 10:31 am · Filed under Ramblings

While inspecting the blooms on my new Eastern Snowball tree a few days ago I discovered this:

Kind of hard to see as I couldn’t get my camera to focus right, but almost all the leaves have been munched upon by little green caterpillars! The little buggers! Just as the tree was coming into bloom.

So I called the garden centre that I bought the tree from and they recommended BTK.

BTK Biological Insecticide is a safe, easy-to-use and effective control for caterpillars including tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, spring and fall cankerworm, Spruce budworm, Jack Pine Budworm and other insects which infect shade trees, ornamentals and evergreens.

So I’ve just finished spraying the tree and I’ll reinspect in a day or two to see if it has helped.

I also noticed some small red ant like creatures on the buds of my peony blooms so I gave them a little squirt too.

4 Comments »

  Ellis Hollow wrote @ May 23, 2007 at 5:04 pm

Sounds like viburnum leaf beetles. At work, I manage a site about them that should answer a lot of your questions and point you in the right direction as far as managing them:
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/

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  anne wrote @ May 24, 2007 at 7:22 pm

Thanks for the link Ellis! I’ll check it out.

Reply
  Ladyseashells wrote @ May 26, 2007 at 10:23 am

How sad and frustrating that is for a gardener to see the plant destroyed by bugs. I hope you get rid of the problems soon. Viburnum is a beautiful plant. Mine is still small, 3ft tall, and been contained in a pot, since given to me by a friend. I’ve seen it in other gardens and they grow as tall as magnolia tree.

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  Laurel Vance wrote @ June 15, 2008 at 7:12 pm

Greetings: I have some older and very tall Jack Pines that were savagely attacked by budworms that hatched this spring. I was told they lay eggs in the fall and the eggs hatch in spring. Once I realized it was the budworm causing the problem I sprayed the trunks on each tree as far up as I could get, which wasn’t too far up, with Sevin liquid concentrate. I must have killed a million of the little worms but I think they were just about through their cycle anyway. I thought I was going to lose my trees as they looked nearly dead. They are beginning to sprout more needles again and it looks like they may survive, but I’m afraid if it happens again it will be too much for them. They have many male pinecones on them and I heard that can be a contributing factor for attracting the worms. what can I do to help prevent the eggs from being layed next fall?
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
Laurel Vance
p.s. I live in s/w Missouri

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