
It's not about vegetables and what I harvested today and how many bags of zucchini I'll be hauling in to work tomorrow. (You have to be sick of that topic by now!)
It's also not about the weather even though it would be tempting to complain about how hot it is, but it's hot everywhere right now.
It's about tent caterpillars. (Please stay! I took pictures!)
Please be warned at this point that I have indeed taken pictures of some tent caterpillars that I found in my Sweet Gum tree this evening. If you are squeamish about little tiny caterpillars that look like little tiny worms, you might want to turn away as you cursor down to leave a comment (if you are so inclined to comment). There are just two pictures so if you scroll down really fast, you can avoid them.
So, duly warned... let's continue.
I'm was working a bit in the vegetable garden this evening, because even in this heat those vegetables just won't wait to be harvested, when I turned around and saw that some tent caterpillars had set up camp in my Sweet Gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). Sigh. I hate when they do that. They tried it a few years ago in another tree in my backyard.
I don't know if these are Eastern tent caterpillars or forest tent caterpillars or some other kind of tent caterpillar. It really doesn't matter as the method of dealing with them is the same.

Because what came next was me cutting these out of the tree. That's the only way I know how to deal with these tent caterpillars. It wasn't a big tent, so it didn't take long to cut it out, drop it in a trash bag and put it out in the trash. Fortunately, the weekly trash pick is tomorrow.
You can hardly tell what was here before.

After I destroyed this tent, I checked all my other trees to see if there were any others, and luckily, this was the only "camp".
If you have some trees in your yard, and surely you do, you might want to go out, maybe late in the day when it is "cooler", and make sure you don't have any tent caterpillars camping in one of your trees. If you don't see any that's great; if you do, cut 'em out.
Comments
I really dislike tent worms, but I'm not afraid of them. I used to cut them out of my trees too, but now my trees have grown too tall to reach them. This year the affected trees were all in the back garden, where I was the only one bothered by their ugliness, so I just left them there. What do you do when the tent worms strike high in a tree?
The trees actually survives the attacs and sets new leaves when the caterpillars are gone. As I said this happens years appart, if it happened every year things may have been different.
They must be very destructive in your garden once they're out of their tent as there are so many of them. They could probably chomp their way into the Olympic team if chomping was an olympic sport. :-D
I wouldn't want to remove them though. Ugh.
I've heard that people with more space and distant neighbors shoot arrows through the bags to pierce them - once broken the birds and wasps can get inside the bag.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Pam/Digging... Yes, we gardeners can't resist a pretty flower, can we? My trees aren't too tall so I could reach most tent caterpillars with a good pole pruner. If they are higher than that, I'd let them go, or read Annie's comment for an idea.
Robin's Nesting Place... I thought about torching them, but it is so dry, the whole tree would have caught fire!
Connie... maybe your neighbors believe in just letting nature be? Or are lazy?
Sister with the Homestead... if you leave them be, they turn into moths. Don't tell that I killed them!
Rosengeranium... I am glad you can't find the picture. That would be right out of the twilight zone!
Yolanda Elizabet... As far as I know, they stay in the tent to feed, then pupate there and emerge as adult moths in the spring.
Eleanor... you were warned!
Gardenista... the broom handle trick would work if you didn't want to cut out any branches.
Iowa Gardening Woman... Hopefully you won't see any this year.
Nicole... thanks for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the post.
Me... I don't think they are Eastern tent caterpillars, either. Too small and too light colored...
Annie in Austin... that's a great idea on how to reach the higher tents, and the birds get the benefit.
Thanks all for the comments!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
I've removed small tents that I can reach - they will damage trees. But what I do with the tent is different. I place it near the feeders and watch the birds have a delightful meal! Within a few hours I trash the tent.
I haven't seen any yet this year.
Mary... What a great idea, I'm going to do that next time!
Kylee... I agree, they are ugly and gross. I'm just glad I'm not afraid of them or too squeamish to cut them out.
JT... I'm way ahead of you and already check the trees in the yards around my house. I don't want anyone to have these!
Thanks all for the comments,
Carol at May Dreams Gardens