Bagworms

There are some pests in the garden that can be difficult to see, then there are others that are much more obvious, like these bagworms. It easy to see the effect they can have on plants. For instance this Leyland Cyprus of which I use for screening, is much weaker than the ones next to it. It's because the caterpillars have been munching on its foliage.

Let me explain how the cycle of this pest works. You see it all begins in a little bag or pouch like this. Believe it or not one of these can contain up to 500 eggs. Now once those eggs hatch, they hatch as caterpillars and they climb out onto the foliage and munch all over the plants. At the same time these caterpillars are spinning new pouches or bags for next year. Then what happens is they climb into the pouch, emerge after a while as a moth and then the females go back in there and lay more eggs so the whole generation or cycle can start again. Sounds pretty complicated, doesn't it?

The main thing to remember here is that it is the caterpillar that does all of the damage in the spring. One of the best ways I've found to deal with these little devils is to hit them when they are most vulnerable, as caterpillars. And one of the safest methods I've found is to use BT. This is actually a concentration of bacteria. You just spray it on, the caterpillar eats it and dies. Since they're not feeding now I'll pull as many off as I can and go after the rest in the spring with BT.




From the garden, I'm Allen Smith.


P. Allen Smith Gardens®
Copyright 2000 - Hortus, Ltd.

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[TheBrassHole]

Bt kills mosquito larvae too, If any one cares. :)