Originally Posted by
Trisher
Any advice? The internet says different things.... from getting chemicals, to just calling it a bad year and doing nothing. I am leaning toward calling it a bad year, unless somebody has a success story with a benign solution!
When I lived in Maryland, we called them "Eastern Tent Caterpillars". I had lived in Seattle for several years before I saw them there. I just did what a gardening writer called for. Put on an old pair of cloth gardening gloves and rub them out, smashing them as you go. If you get at them early enough, there will not be as much damage. If they are there long enough to damage the limbs, you may need to cut away the damage and burn it. I think that Rodell Press still puts out a book on identifying and controlling garden pests. If I were going to spray, I would look into what "Planet Natural" has to say about controlling them.