Caterpillars are Taking Over My Trees

I am in Washington state and there are caterpillars everywhere right now. They are orange and black and about an inch long. You can see their nests all over my trees and when you look closely at the nests there are between 10 to hundreds of caterpillars in each one. These things are going to devour everything. Anyone know how to get rid of them? I believe these are called tent caterpillars.

Joy in WA

Best Answers: Caterpillars are Taking Over My Trees

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Chemical Pesticide Sprays

By frank (Guest Post) 06/27/2004

Try diazanon or malathion, fixes that problem.

Spray the Nests

By Dan (Guest Post) 06/14/2004

I'm not really sure of a fool proof method, but there are sprays you can get. They are tent caterpillars. They usually affect fruit trees, especially cherry and a few years ago Seattle did some heavy spraying trying to get rid of them. It helped for a couple years, but now they are back in full force. I had them in my apple tree at the beginning of spring, a little spray right on the nest and they died.

More Answers

By Jane (Guest Post) 06/08/2005

I can't even sit in my yard they are every where we have a crab apple tree there was a nest , but it was to high to cut. what do I do? I want to be able to sit in my yard

By Krysta (Guest Post) 05/28/2004

i seem to have sort of the same problem..but the tree is not in my yard...it belongs to the nieghbor but the caterpillars are all over my yard...anyone know what i should do about this?

By Terry (Guest Post) 05/07/2004

About those Caterpillers,,,We had this problem a few years back and I sprayed the nests with Vinegar. This killed the little ones and it was not un safe for the trees. Use it full strength in a spray bottle. I hope this works for you.