Forrest tent caterpillar

[rbross]

The forrest tent caterpillers have almost completely defoliated my sugar bush. I am concerned about over stressing the trees if I tap this coming year. Looking for any suggestions or ideas.

Thanks

[gi53]

We had them here in up state ny about 5 years ago. They lasted about 3 years be for they died off. I did not tap at all. Some people had there trees sprayed by plan. I think it was $40 acer.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Yup! They is miserable cusses and they devastate the maples. I cut back taps and tapped an area of the bush that seemed to be stressed less. I also sprayed. Duflo from New Breman NY sprays all over the Country. I got 320 acres sprayed for $20/acre five years ago. He needs precise latitude longitude numbers. I talked to him and the job was done 3 days later. Three days after that the only caterpillars to be found were dead on the ground.

[adk1]

I hear you there. luckily there are no sightings this year..yet

[Ausable]

Forest Tent Caterpillar - now that is a little menace I never heard about till now. We get the Eastern Tent Caterpillar - the ones that operate out of a central nest and they are bad enough - Usually see them in small trees and bushes which they strip the leaves off of. Just reading about the Forest version and they sound like a caterpillar from hell. The darn Gypsy Moth Caterpillars seem to be increasing in numbers again - had a couple of bad years with them about fifteen years ago - they really nailed the Oaks hard and it looked like November in July... Wish You All luck with this menace....and hope I never see them.....

[3rdgen.maple]

rbross you can always do a search on here about it there has been a few threads in the past on it. I got wiped out like others in this state a few years back and it does seem like a 3 year cycle then they are gone. What I noticed in those 3 years are they only touched the hard(sugar) maples in my area. So I chose not to tap the ones that were attacked. There were a few that managed to escape and the softs(reds) never got touched so I tapped some of them to make up for it. The good news is all but maybe two trees died shortly after but not sure if it was the tent worms or just plain old age. But I would be careful on the tap count and skip the ones that got hit real bad for sure. They are nast nasty little critters. I could not walk outside without crap falling on your head from them. You could sit on the porch and just hear them nawing away on foilage. I sprayed everything I could reach and the next day I was scooping them up by shovel fulls. There were literly thousands and thousands of them in each tree. I wish I took some pictures but never did. My dang truck was covered so much in crap everyday you had no idea what color it was. For your sake I hope your area rids of them quick.

[maple flats]

I had a medium stress 5 yrs ago but was able to tap my sugarhouse bush but had to skip tapping my biggest bush. This season I again see some FTC's but only minimal damage seen. They are almost done for the year and will make cacoons and be gone from sight soon. When the adults emerge they don't eat, just lay eggs and are gone. There are always some FTC every year with no impact until they have a big spike in population and totally defoliate the trees. These trees will releaf but will not recover enough to risk tapping next year. For us the last out break only lasted 1 season, I understand some areas had it worse.

[sapmaple]

we had FTC's here in vermont about 5 years ago as well The first year they hit, about half of our trees were defoliated but they re-leafed with a much smaller leaf
I chose to tap anyway and had a decent season with decent sugar content.
the next year we did spray and that killed the vast majority of them , the third year did not spray because the egg mass count was way down and had no problem.
I know guys who chose not to tap and others who did such as myself and I see no problems the trees look very healthy
I think the trees can handle some stress but multiple stresses at the same time or several years in a row are things to consider
My understanding is the tree only needs enough sugar to start the next years bud , so as long as the tree re- leafs and can do its thing they should be fine

[moeh1]

I see a number of tents spread around in various trees and maybe 3-50 caterpillars bunched up on individual trees - I spray them both. Obviously 1 is 1 too many, but when you have what you would call an epidemic? I've only paid attention to them the last couple years, so I don't have good handle on it yet.
Them seem to have a preference for tenting in the cherry trees, but I seem to find more caterpillars on the ash trees - normal, or do I have weird tentworms?
Thanks

[maple flats]

The tents you see are eastern tent caterpillars (they do not eat maple). Forest tent caterpillars make a tent that hugs the limb and is hard to see. For identifying the caterpillars, a FTC has spots in a line down it's back that look like shoe prints, an eastern tent caterpillar has a solid strip down its back and makes the tents you see so well. Remember, FTC eat maple leaves and ETC don't as a rule.
On a side note, anyone with horses should be very careful. I attended a program by co op ext. that warned that FTC's when eaten by horses can harm and sometimes even kill a horse. It seams the hairs are one way and can perferate the intestines of a horse. Before you find whatthe problem is the horse can sometimes die.

[Mud Island Maple]

Here in northeastern Vermont the warm late April and early May weather had the maples leafing out earlier than usual. Then we got snow that stuck to the leaves and then cold temperatures (25 degrees). It raised havoc with the maple leaves on most of the trees at our elevation. The trees effected have very light leaf cover showing and leaves are brown and shriveled. I know the trees will be fine in the end but my question is should these trees be tapped next spring? Would appreciate some advice. Thanks.

[DrTimPerkins]

Here in northeastern Vermont the warm late April and early May weather had the maples leafing out earlier than usual. Then we got snow that stuck to the leaves and then cold temperatures (25 degrees). It raised havoc with the maple leaves on most of the trees at our elevation. The trees effected have very light leaf cover showing and leaves are brown and shriveled. I know the trees will be fine in the end but my question is should these trees be tapped next spring? Would appreciate some advice. Thanks.

Hopefully most will refoliate. I'd suggest you wait until near the end of the summer and assess them at that point.