Hi mr.mader, What kind of poppies do you have? Check my Trade List, let me know if anything interests you. Katie GW: katie88

What you have is Tent caterpillars. They usually hatch out about the time forsythia blooms here in Virginia Zone 7. You can wait until they hatch and are small and crawling around, before they build their tents, and spray with a pesticide that is registered for your fruit trees. I am guessing you pruned the branches off a fruit tree. Once they build their tents (in the crotch of trees) you will have to penetrate the nest to get at them.

OOh, most cool thing, Aggie! I buy the ootheca (egg sac), place it in one of my big bug containers, and just wait! I do this at school with my Kindergartners and it is an awesome thing. Teaches them a lot about PATIENCE because it takes forever for the little nymphs to hatch but when they do...woo-hoo! Around 150+ come out of one ootheca and it is an awesome sight to behold, for sure. So, 'raise them' isn't quite the correct term, I should use here. ;P I give each child several to take home and place in their gardens. I've had kids come back to give me reports of how large their Praying Mantids have grown (or if theirs has died), and whether they've observed them catch and eat any bugs. I've also taught them WHERE to place the insectivores so as not to have them eat any butterflies! We discuss the eating habits as well as 'preying' habits as well. It is a fun lesson for the kids and as you know, kids LOVE bugs anyway. My thinking and reason is this: I feel it is important to teach a LOT of science to children and science has really been taken out of the schools nowadays (at least in California). Gardening is an enjoyable and relaxing hobby as well as way to have your home look nice. Integrating some knowledge about insects and gardening into the school curriculum together with lifecycles (I also teach about plant lifecycles) gets the children to go home and start thinking about their OWN HOMES as well as the community and making the community a nicer place to live for the people and 'wildlife.' Knowledge about insects helps to make them aware of what is a 'good' vs. 'bad' bug (biters vs. non-biters, poisonous vs. non-poisonous, beneficial...) and at the same time, we end up with, hopefully, LESS pesticides being used in the communities and more of the beneficial insects (placed in the areas where there aren't any butterflies, of course!). I always bring home all the extra Praying Mantids for my front yard. :)

As long as those egg cases are kept at less than about 40 degrees F they will stay dormant.