Maine 4-Season Greenhouse Grow

Enough talk about the forest caterpillars invasion...here are some pics to fuel your nightmares....

Outside my front door

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caterpillars.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

Side of my house

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forest tent caterpillar invasion

One cluster of thousands on my property alone...

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IMG_0347.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

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forest tent caterpillar invasion

All the way up every tree...

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forest tent caterpillar invasion

Random shot of my driveway...same all over 1 square mile. Green debris is leaf scraps...you can stand still and hear the caterpillar poop hitting the ground (which hopefully is good fertilizer at least!)

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forest tent caterpillar invasion

Oak trees in June...were fully leafed out...now bare.

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forest tent caterpillar invasion-June oak leaves eaten
 
Zincite said:
Holy cow Blew, at first I thought you might need some chickens, but after I scrolled down I think they would eat the chickens. is it like this every year? I guess you could make some fishing bait out of them.
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First time they have seen this in 50+ years....

Chickens/crows won't eat them...they probably don't taste very good.

I kicked a few in the pond...fish won't go for them either...
 
Yorcks!!:eek: Looks like something out of a sci-fi flick!
 
UrbanAchiever said:
The tent cats typically come back in cycles. We had two or three years of bad caterpillar damage.
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How did the trees fare?

These are "forest" tent cats...meaning they don't have webbing so not sure how they can be eradicated. I was looking at them today and I was wondering if you tied rough rope around the tree if that would irritate them enough...but them I remembered they are the zombie hordes...o_O
 
Many trees can handle significant defoliation, but if it happens a few years in a row they will die, so for the most part things were ok.

Some folks wrap the bole of the tree with plastic wrap, and smear vegetable oil or vaseline all over the plastic, they dont like climbing through that to get to the canopy. Seems to work reasonable well for ornamental trees
 
UrbanAchiever said:
Many trees can handle significant defoliation, but if it happens a few years in a row they will die, so for the most part things were ok.

Some folks wrap the bole of the tree with plastic wrap, and smear vegetable oil or vaseline all over the plastic, they dont like climbing through that to get to the canopy. Seems to work reasonable well for ornamental trees
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Luckily it is confined to an approximate square mile area...our farm is 2 miles away and totally unaffected. At our house it is mainly oaks (that I care about) and the rest are essentially trash trees (birch, pine, and poplar).
 
Get some neem oil and water those oaks. I know my cousin maples that were getting ate (I mentioned before) she got some sort of plugs you drill into the truck, of course is was some sort of pesticide, but it done the trick.
 
Itibitiguy said:
Get some neem oil and water those oaks. I know my cousin maples that were getting ate (I mentioned before) she got some sort of plugs you drill into the truck, of course is was some sort of pesticide, but it done the trick.
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If it happens again we will try to mitigate it...this year it just snuck up on us.
 
Blew Hiller said:
Thanks for the warm salutation...today looking to be gorgeous @ 73F and sunny....with hordes of caterpillars :)

Hoping the same (minus the caterpillars) for you down in the Big Star State....
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Ha! I got sunny alright! 97 & the sun w
Blew Hiller said:
Enough talk about the forest caterpillars invasion...here are some pics to fuel your nightmares....

Outside my front door

caterpillars.jpg

caterpillars.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

Side of my house

IMG_0342.jpg

IMG_0342.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

One cluster of thousands on my property alone...

IMG_0347.jpg

IMG_0347.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

IMG_0354.jpg

IMG_0354.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

All the way up every tree...

IMG_0349.jpg

IMG_0349.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

Random shot of my driveway...same all over 1 square mile. Green debris is leaf scraps...you can stand still and hear the caterpillar poop hitting the ground (which hopefully is good fertilizer at least!)

IMG_0351.jpg

IMG_0351.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion

Oak trees in June...were fully leafed out...now bare.

IMG_0345.jpg

IMG_0345.jpg

forest tent caterpillar invasion-June oak leaves eaten
Click to expand...
Holy fuckballs!
That is a straight up Stephen King novel. Does this happen annually? Every few years?
 
We saw one down here today Blew. Glad they stayed North of us.
 
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