Posted on 06/25/2025 8:05:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
Ahh, summertime: A season for kicking back, relaxing, grilling and barbecuing.
And also a time for these horrific monsters:
Credit: Joe Boggs via WCMH
But what ARE these horrific lumps?! From one local report in Ohio:
Caterpillars that are camouflage experts and known to cause damage to a variety of plants are now hatching in Ohio.
Joe Boggs, an assistant professor with Ohio State University Extension, is warning residents to be on the lookout for bagworms, which are the caterpillars of bagworm moths. The insects create a bag around themselves using silk and pieces of their host plant, which camouflages them from predators. They often resemble small pine cones.
Yes, "small pine cones." Or pieces of tree bark:
Fir0002/Wikimedia Commons
Or jagged chunks of sap and pine needles:
Credit: Joe Boggs via WCMH
Or elegant arrangements of handsome twigs:
Shutterstock
Or, um, whatever this is:
Shutterstock
Regrettably, this bug has quite a large spread:
USA National Phenology Network
Thankfully, it's okay to kill these pests — and you have some options here:
Boggs said an easy way to get rid of bagworms is to pluck them off their hosts and step on them.
Boggs also said insecticides are another option, but some sprays may also kill arthropods that help keep bagworms and other pests at bay. ...
The best long-term solution for keeping the pests away is to plant a variety of flowering plants, which attract insects such as certain wasps that are predators of bagworms, according to Boggs.
So suit up y'all — it's bagworm season!
Yes, I have the pass, available at any National Park office.............
Their preferred type of tree probably doesn’t grow in those places.................
They are Non-Union bugs...............
I dislike pine trees. They produce no fruit, nut or firewood and they kill off other plants. They also attract lightening and fall over on your house.
I have been on a campaign to get rid of the dozen or so that are in our front yard and replace them with useful trees.
So far I have been out voted.
I got some lovely chestnut saplings that would go perfectly in those spots.
Yes, I usually sit the half-full can in the sun, to generate some heat and fume, and then it lights-off just fine.
They will also rot your roof....................
They smell good though.
And if someone wants to have them on their property or raise them for wood I will go and take a couple of whiffs.
But I prefer the land to be productive. And a dozen pine trees really are not.
None shown in CO. Like magic. Do these creatures just not go there? Seems unlikely.
Mostly not a problem because we went with metal but still...
Put em in your muzzle loader
“...a big sign that says that bringing firewood into the state is forbidden because of some bug. Can’t recall the name of the bug.”
My educated guess is the transport of the Emerald Ash Borer, which has decimated the Ash tree population.
https://www.dontmovefirewood.org/pest_pathogen/emerald-ash-borer-html/
We had one remaining Ash tree in our house yard and the EAB got to it. We cut it down, but we can’t seem to kill the thing - it keeps re-sprouting! It’s the only Ash on our property, so we’re considering just letting it do it’s thing as the EAB has obviously moved on.
Heh, I have a .50cal “Beowulf” — sold my Barrett M82A1 last year — so I could do that.
“Drop them in a coffee can...”
Can you still get coffee in cans? All I see are plastic coffee containers.
Find an infested tree? Do what the government does with chickens and burn ALL the trees down!
What if you see a Iranian ayatollah in your tree?
That’s what they do around here. If a tree is infected with a pine bark beetle, they will cut it down and every tree within an acre of it and burn them in situ...........
Nuke him from orbit. It the only way to be sure.............
I’m going with Emerald Ash borer. Had them all over Ohio when we lived there, and when we moved to Indiana, found that they were spreading here. We’ve lost several beautiful ash trees to the borer.
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