Bagworms might seem as lovely creatures but when you find them make their appearance in your garden, it’s something that you don’t want. There are bagworms in trees and in plants. How can you get rid of bagworms? Bagworms basically look like moths but they aren’t.
These lovely bagworms enjoy feeding on the leaves of the trees. You will understand that bagworms paid a visit when you notice the leaves of your trees turn brown. If you have pine trees then the needles will fall.
They use over 100 plants and trees in order to feed. Some of them are the pine trees, oak, maple, willow, and sycamore. They also prefer plants that are arborvitae and juniper species too. Below we are to give you tips in order to help you answer the big question of: How can you get rid of bagworms in trees?
Bagworms Description
The female bagworm never leaves her bag. She has a yellow and white color and is soft-bodied. When the mating season begins she is able to lay from 500 to 1000 eggs. These bags are the cocoons that carry the bagworms in trees. The sacks are brown and can be from 3.8 to 5 cm long.
They aren’t easily spotted because they might seem as pine cones. The caterpillars will feed for about six weeks. The bagworms in trees can eat whole leaves too. This will start to happen from mid to late May when the eggs will start to hatch.
The males come out in fall and they search for the female ones. When the mate takes place then the female lays the eggs, she leaves the bags and she dies. The eggs hatch after 1 year (the following May).
You should know that the bagworms in trees can also be carried by the wind. Every time that there is a light breeze it might be a new beginning for them. Their bags might also look like Christmas ornaments so take a closer look when you see something like this.
How To Control Anf Ger Rid of The Bagworms:
The best time to start the control would be in fall, winter and early spring because the bagworms in trees wouldn’t have hatched. In this way, it will be easier to protect your trees and plants. There are different ways in order to control them.
You can either handpick them or create your own insecticide. You can buy and use insecticides (biological or chemical) and of course, let the nature take over. We will explain what we mean by this. Whichever way you use be sure that you’ll get rid of bagworms in trees once and for all, if possible.
You should always remember to sweep under your trees because the fallen egg sacks might exist without you noticing it. Once you finish with the sweeping, place everything into a bag, seal it and throw it away.
Organic Bargworms Control
When we mentioned before that you should let nature take over we meant that the birds should do the entire dirty job. Even though it’s an unconventional way, it might work. It actually depends on whether you have many bagworms in your trees.
Birds eat the worms so if you want to let them take over it could be a good idea. This method doesn’t mean that the bagworms will vanish or that they will eat all of them. It’s up to you to try it.
Create Your Own Pesticide
There is another way that you can kill the bagworms in your trees. You can mix warm water and dish soap. Mix these two ingredients well and put them in a bucket. Wear your garden gloves and take with you your clippers.
Remove all the bags with the clippers and drop the bags in the bucket and let them submerge fully. Once you have finished with all of them, place them in a bag, seal it, and throw it away. If you repeat this technique every early spring, fall, and winter, the bagworms in your trees will be reduced.
Bagworm Chemical Control
There are different insecticides that you can use in order to reduce the population of the bagworms in your trees. The only thing that you should do is to spray the bags early when they are young because if you do it later on it might not be quite effective.
You can use insecticides like Thuricide, Dipel because they have bacteria which kill the bagworms. Talstar and Tempo and Orthene are insecticides that can be used in newly-hatched bagworms. You should always spray the leaves and every other area that you think is possible to be affected.
Biological Control
The biological solution to remove the bagworms in your trees would be the Basilicus thuringiensis. It is a natural soil bacterium disease. It can help you kill the bagworms. First, they become sick, then they stop feeding and as a result, they will die.
When you apply it, make sure to read the instructions and make sure to use it within two years. If you keep it any longer then it might not give you the best results when you’ll use it. Also, its toxicity is low but don’t overuse it.
Handpick
Another way to get rid your bagworms in your trees is the handpick. If the bagworm population isn’t a very big one you can handpick them. It is not expensive at all because you just pick the bags with your hands and of course, you should place them in a bag, seal it and throw them.
Handpicking can be quite demanding because it depends on the height of the tree. This means that this method isn’t always an easy one. You can use a ladder that will help you reach the branches.
Sod Webworms
Apart from the bagworms in your trees, we have the sod worms too. Sod worms leave in thatches above the soil. They eat leaves too and when you start to notice that you have brown spots in your lawn then this might mean that sod worms have paid you a visit.
The specific warm is 1 inch long and looks like a caterpillar. It has yellow or brown color. During April and May, they start to feed. When the male and female mate, the female starts to fly and scatters her eggs in your lawn. You should water your lawn a lot because on this way the sod worms won’t be able to create their homes.
You could also spray your lawn with water and soap and we mentioned above. The biological insecticides are the best solution for your grass because you don’t want to damage it your effort to kill the sod worms.
Our conclusion about bagworms is:
From what we saw there are 2 kinds of worms that can appear in your garden. The bagworms in your trees and plants and the sod worms in your grass want to feed on the leaves and grass. Above we gave you different tips that you can use to eliminate them.
Whichever method you use, make sure that you wear your garden gloves. Choose the appropriate one for you and try to eliminate as early as possible because you don’t want your trees, grass, and plants to be covered by our small ‘friends’.
