Well ladies, it's that time when those ugly, hairy worms are all over the cherry, plum and peach trees. They are brown and black and hairy. This is the only thing I will allow myself to HATE!!! The trees are loaded with them and they have already begun to crawl all over the place. The lawn will look like a moving carpet and they get all over the house, under the carport as well as eat everything in their path. :hunf: Needless to say, I'm in for a while!!! :mrgreen:
Can't cut the tree, it hangs over the street. Tried to saw the limbs, 1 at a time, but that's a big tree. What's an old girl to do?? Too high to spray, and I'm too old to keep running and screaming every time I venture outside and see one. :mrgreen:
Thought about throwing gas and finding a match, but, house too close to tree. I poured boxes of salt around the tree, but, the salt-loving thing just grew more. :hunf:
What's an old girl to do??? QUILT YOU SAY, well I hate that those darn worms have the control to make me stay inside when I'd rather be outside looking at the new roses, not the ones they ate the tops out of once they're gone. :thumbdown:
Well I guess I could secure [army talk] the windows and doors just in case they try to cross THIS enemy line. :hunf:
Well ladies, thanks for letting me vent. OH----does anyone have one of the big fire guns they use to clear the jungle???? I'll pay top money for it!!!!!!

Ick! I can deal with almost anything but worms!

If you have a fenced yard, borrow some geese. They will eat anything.

Love that echo solution except....what about the goose crap?

Ramona, I grew up in the country and everybody had ducks and geese. Not anymore, they only ones I see now are the wild ones flying south for the winter. :hunf:

I feel your pain i have red and black beetles that have invaded my house i have a crawlspace as part of my basment and they over winter in there and im constantly sqishing them but they just come back im realy hopping for warmer weather soon so they will all go out side hopefully.

Have you searched for a systemic remedy that can be spread on the ground, around the base of the tree, that can be sucked up by the roots? I don't know if such a think exists but it's worth a search or inquiry at your nearest plant center. Reminds me of the Gypsy moth problem we had a few years back. Yuck!

Try a band of duck tape around tape tree with Vaseline in it It seems to work for the darn things here!

Have you tried Boric Acid, sprinkled aroun d the base of the tree. I bought my box at the dollar store, but I'm sure you can find it at the hardware store, or Walmart.

Boric Acid and Diatomaceous Earth, mixed. The Boric Acid is poisonous, and the Diatomaceous Earth is like microscopic sharp shards of glass that cut the insects and they dehydrate. It's also called a mechanical insecticide.

ROTFL. I can still see my daughter wending her way down the wooded driveway to the bus. She just hated bugs!

Thanks Ramona, I have to get my DH to go get some. Although he's suffering from a swollen foot the size of a football, he'll just have to hop his way up to the tree and sprinkle. This is the 1 issue not up for debate!! Either, hop and sprinkle or sleep on the porch. It's that serious!! :twisted:

Yeah Rusty, my shoveling days are behind me now!!!

You need to get a sprayer that will reach the top and use Bt. It is an organic control and will work perfectly. Maybe a small electric power washer? Good Luck to you. Of course you can always call your county agricultural agent and see what they might use (they'll probably say Bt), or they can give you the name of a tree company that can do it for you.

Thanks Sweet, I called the ag offfice lat year, the little lady who came out was so busy hopping and jumping around that I never got a straight answer from her. The tree cutters have to deal with a very big tree hanging over a very busy street with lots of traffic. There's also a school up the street and they didn't work on weekends. So far, everything is working in the worm's favor :hunf:

Good for the lawn, no prob. If you find no ducks to be borrowed, try chickens

Call your local Farm Co-op Extension office, they can help

Offer them for fish bait.

I guess they will be hatching out here soon!! Ugh! :thumbdown:

Or those black crickets that were everywhere in Texas when I lived there ewwwwe!

Be very careful if you have pets....it"s deadly.

I was going to say that or Guinny Chickens

Oh ICK !! Crawly things just gross me out ! Hope you can find a solution - Good Luck !

TORCH EM!! hehehe just kidding. I like the geese idea, but I think that the poop is very acidey <SP> I feel for you that is for certain!

Our geese wouldn't eat the caterpillars (hairy worms?)

Every time it rain's I get ants....

LMBO!!! I'm sorry you have to deal with those worms. They sound awful! BUT, you sure can tell a good story. Hugs

Really laughing my butt off now! Poor hubby. I hope you find something that works.

You might try spraying them with clorox spray?

Ducks are as good as geese. We have a slug problem here. We had a pair of ducks when I was little and they ate every single slug and even the eggs. I'd rather put up with duck crap than worms or slugs any day. What kind of worms are they? I've never seen worms on our cherry trees.

Lawn fertilizer

Our tractor supply store has live ducks on sale today.
Chickens too! It is that time of year...
Are the worms the brown stripey ones?
This sounds odd, but spray them with rug cleaner, or hairspray, something they can't tolerate, maybe oven off?

Eastern tent caterpillar. They grow in wild cherry trees, peach and plum, down here.

Oh, tent caterpillars we have some years but not others. They are indeed icky. My dad used to cut them down and burn the tents.

We would, well my DH, cut down the tents he could reach and burn them. Some of these trees can grow to 70', 3' base, so it hard to get them all. They seem to have gotten smarter---they stay up high now. None on the limbs that can be reached have tents on them.
I let my sister's kids toll me outside yesterday, that lasted a hot second, worms all over my potted plants and the roses. Tried to break a piece of a plant for my NIL, but just as I put my hand
on it, I saw the plant moving, waving. Don't remember this plant being a waver!! Now, it was in between me and the door and my hand was about to land on a worm infested plant. Needless to say, she spent the rest of her visit re-planting what was left laying on the carport when I made my way to the door. She had her choice of pieces and some of the dirt it had been in too. Cracked my knee on the door frame, so now DH has the football foot and I've got the basketball knee. There should be a law against things that make "old women" have to run, when their minds have to search to remember just how that process worked!!!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Nothing hairy here...too much ice and snow, but I did spot the first of the Canadian Geese arriving. Now although they are a big beautiful bird, when you get a flock of them on your lawn, what they leave behind looks like a pack of dogs ate laxative for breakfast.......