Each fully developed Bag left on the shrub can contain from 200-1,000 eggs just waiting to hatch next spring. Next year part of the new hatchlings will remain on the mother plant and part will secrete thin strands of silk and catch the wind to go to other suitable hosts. With this in mind are you sure you picked every single solitary bag? This pest is one of the very few that I use the "big guns" on. The problem here is not only the pest itself but the damage that can be done to the shrub if whatever material we use is sprayed on during our normal high temperatures (85 or under is spraying temperature). Repeated applications of a semi effective pesticide is often not possible because of the heat. For example Bt (Bacillus Thuringiensis) is a stomach poison which means it must be consumed to kill the caterpillars, and its residual activity is very short-lived. Thus, two applications may be required. The efficacy of Bt declines once bags reach ¾ inch, so standard insecticide will need to be used after bags exceed this length. You can use Seven, but it attracts too many spider mites, so I pass on that. You can use Malathion, but it has a short residual effect also. Personally I use Orthene (Acephate) which has a residual of about a week or so. Many times only 1 spraying with Orthene is required to control the situation. And that's all we can do is try and control it, as the "worms" from outside our zone of influence will be drifting our way on next seasons winds.

Our garden contains alot of conifers. In some years, some plants (mostly junipers, it seems) get bag worms; other years, they do not. I've found that picking off the cases is sufficient control for our situation.

200 to 1000 eggs per bag? Wow! I must have pulled off about 200 little bags, but only 2 fully grown bags. At so many eggs potenially developing in each bag, if I had ignored them and not picked them off; next year, they might have infested all my Golden Globes.

It is also good to find out that Seven dust attracts spider mites, that Malathion has a short residual affect and that Orthene (Acephate) has the potential to be effective for about a week.

I used to think all that need to be done to control bagworms was to just pick them off, and better yet to simpy not plant anything which would be a good host for bagworms. Over time my thinking changed on both those points and now here I am having to fight against bagworm attacks.

Once again, it's been a readjustment time for me, in my landscaping values, since I have seen how many of those bags I had to pick off on that one Golden Globe on which they killed everysingle leaf. Amazing how that defoliated little shrub is still attempting to regreen.

Some of the nearby Golden globes in the hedge are also showing more leaf browning than normal, and I did remove some bagworms from them, but it surprises me as to how many of those shrubs continue to suffer even more browning even though I have not found anymore bagworms on them for the last week or so. Even though I also am attempting to keep their soil moisture at a better level, which is a thing that I failed to do previous to this current infestation hit.

Never previously considered how many eggs those bags could contain. As you can tell, I have avoided planting junipers in my yard because our climate is too harsh for them and I do not want to deal with bagworms. Guess once I found that my Thuja Green Giants aren't attacked by bagworms, and a screen of them has grown for me so long with no pests attacking them, my choice to plant these Golden Globes must have been because I gained some inappropriat optomism.

Oh well as mentioned above, the bagworms also have not attacked my Golden Globes every year.

Thanks again for the help; so I can make better choices on how to prevent loosing my shrub hedge of Golden Globes.

Picking Bagworms is another semi-effective control. However other then erecting scaffolding every year, it would be impossible for me to pick Bagworms off my 12 foot Arborvitae. For my low growing Junipers it worked if I could find the time in amongst my other gardening chores and the normal routine of life to do it religiously. A friend of mine gave her grandkids a dime for every bagworm they could pick off on her low growers. I thought that was a cute idea...Haven't noticed here that my Junipers get bagworms more then my Arborvitaes. Come to think about it, it is usually my Arborvitae that gets them first, but that could be because it's so tall that it catches more wind born newbie catapillars in the spring.

Yes, Last year planted Arborvitaes I got from one of the big box stores. They were supposed to be narrow growing 8 to 10 foot tall growing shrubs that I planted on the west side of my house. They both died in the hot dry summer and when I took them out I did see a couple bagworms on each of them.

Those likely were quite possible the source for this year's massive attack on my Golden Globes. fortunately my Golden Globes will never grow tall enough for me to need scaffoding to get bagworms or other pests off or to spray the tops.

Only problem is that I have quite a few of these Golden Globes planted along both sides of my front walk and about 25 others along part of one border of my lot.

I will not plant Junipers in my yard because of they are such a magnet for Bagworms, but I guess this is my lesson to teach me not to plant any more arborvitaes either unless they are the Western variety, Like my Thuja plicata x Standishi Green Giants or any of its sports. Of course none of its sports grow as short as the Golden Globes or Little Giant shrubs, and most other broadleaf evergreens suffer from the extreme environment the west side of my lot presents in this area of the country.

Maybe I will have to one day replace these Golden Globes by something like Yaupon Nana shrubs. or find some low, only 4x4 feet growing Chinese holly shrub cultivar, if there is such a thing selling at my local nurseries.

Don't forget another good evergreen for our climate: Glossy Abelias.

I guess the Little Richard cultivar of glossy abelia is dwarf enough to avoid having to prune them regularly once or twice a year to keep them in bounds, but not certain if their root spreading would required that root barrier's be installed to keep them from spreading too far.

Other wise, I wonder if (not certain if I'm about to spell the following right) the Mahona compact oregon grape would stay within the 4 X 4 growth range without the need for shearing or yearly pruning to keep it in balance with the landscaping need. At least I think that shrub could withstand a harsh western exposure.

Guess these follow-up questions are getting off topic. Sorry. Maybe any answer to those last questions could be submitted in a new subject of posting.

I had the same need for a smaller growing evergreen this year and after much research came up with a newer introduction of Abelia named Rose Creek. It is an introduction from famed plantsman Dr. Michael Dirr (University of Georgia). Mine is in flower now and is much more "ornamental looking" then I had dared to hope for. Reported to be fragrant but I haven't bent down to smell it yet. Since it's so new in my border I obviously can't give you more data, but that's why I mentioned Abelias in my previous post. This one may suit your needs, and with attractive flowers, adaptability to our soils and heat, it has already made it on several "must have lists". Here's a mail order nursery in Tahlequah that carries it and their blurb about it. I found mine locally.

Here is a link that might be useful: Abelia Woodcreek Rose/Sooner Plants

We have about 100 thuja green giant, and they do get bag worms (in Dallas TX in clay soil, dry, hot) despite ads saying otherwise. Treat with bifenthrin insecticide or the bag worms can kill entire trees. Significant brown damage even when caught under 1/2 cm size. Spray around May 1 if you had problems the prior year. Will have to use a systemic such as Imidicloprid soon since they are about 15' tall and cannot spray much higher. That worked via spray; not sure if it will if watered in via the roots. Bifenthrin works great if you can get to them (100% dead next day). Home Depot type products not near as effective, particularly once they get big. The Ortholene (smelly fire ant poison) also works on bag worms but worth the trouble to find bifenthrin!

Bagworms can be the most damaging insects to conifers and other ornamentals as well as the easiest to treat. I find their host range impressive. Leylands, Arbs, Cupressus, lacebark elm, pyracantha, spruce, Otto Luykens. They are a pest that will continue damaging the plant even after they are dead. They are usually attached to host plants by a silk thread (or several) wrapped around the twig or branch. Even when bags are removed from the plant, the silk thread remains, where it girdles the twig or branch, often resulting in death of that twig. Pulling on a bag to remove it makes the thread tighter. From my experience, plants where the bags were pulled off often suffer more girdling damage early on than plants where the bags are left on. Ideally, bags are pulled down while a blad makes a small slice on the top of the twig, cutting the silk thread. I've never seen any secondary damage from this. Problem is, it's very time consuming, and what do you do with large plants? There's also a little research that suggests mature larvae, say over an inch, will stop feeding if the plant is sprayed.

I must have been asleep at the wheel for a few days, and now my entire hedge of 20' junipers are horribly infested with bagworms, and the tops of some of them are really brown. It would be impossible to handpick the bags at this point - is it too late to spray? And I guess I will have to have "professionals" at this point, with plants so large? I'm not a ladder climber at this point...