Which birds eat web worms? I've got a backyard full of chickens that won't touch them, and I haven't noticed any of the other visiting birds eating them, either.

We've got a huge old fruitless mulberry out back, and it's packed with the nasty things.

I think there are some wild birds that eat them, but I don't know what kind. I have heard that trichogramma wasps (sp?) will take 'em out. You can buy and release the wasps. Otherwise Bt spray works, though it's by no means organic.

So if I get the insecticide, how do I get the spray up to the infected areas. I can get rid of the lower stuff by climbing the tree, the rest are out of reach and there is a big nest almost 20 feet up.

Bt is an organic pestacide you can spray or "powder" with a mop head. If the "bags" are torn down and opened my chickens thought they were M&M's!!!
PJ

I used to stand on the roof of my house and spray with a Gilmore hose end sprayer which reaches pretty far if you have good water pressure. You could also stand on a tall step ladder to spray and that would help out some.

Just plain old paper wasps will keep tent caterpillars under control. It helps if you can break open the webs with a long cane pole, but it seems the wasps can take care of them even if you don't do that. I haven't had a problem since I've let the paper wasps stay, but breaking open the nests would help the birds get to them.

Malcolm Beck had a story about paper wasps in one of his books. Seems someone had a pecan orchard and never had a problem with caterpillars. Then a nephew spent the summer and for recreation shot down all the wasp nests with a sling shot. The next year he had tons of tent caterpillars. It took several years for the wasp to build their population back up enough to take care of them again.

Mommyfox, I thought BT was considered organic since it is a specific bacteria that affects only caterpillars and is not a poisonous insecticide, but I could be wrong about what is considered organic. It will affect all types of caterpillars though. It is so dry here I'm wondering if there are enough caterpillars for the birds to feed their young.

Wasps did it for me last year. I'm counting on their assistance this year, if needed.

Sorry to go back to chickens, but I have to know... they ate the worms, not the bigger fuzzy ones that crawl on everything, right? I did open some bags for them last year, but they weren't interested in those buggers either. Spoiled little things!

Miss, Your chickens are spoiled! Mine even chased snakes. PJ

I wish I could have chickens. I have lots of birds this year and have seen a good many wasps and I have been leaving them alone. I have only seen a couple of worms so far and usually by this time they are everywhere and I see no bags yet so hopefully they are eating them.

chickens tore the heck outta my flower beds. They are in a coop (somewhere else)with other chickens now. PJ

We used to have two Italian cypress planted in front of the pillars in front of our house. We took them down this spring because we were getting the house painted. Anyway, each year I would be out there picking off bag worms. I didn't like the idea of using bt because nearby parts of my garden have host plants for butterflies and didn't want to kill them, so chose to pick them off. Pretty soon I would hear things moving in the bucket where I disposed of the bagworms. It was like munch, munch, munch! It was the bagworms crawling out of their bags looking for more food! Yuck!

I found out by letting my boys help with the bagworm removal that if you place one on the sidewalk and slam your foot down real hard on it, lots of gooey green stuff will shoot out! Well, actually they did this several times and had a good time making a mess.

Every year we check for those bag worms and just pick them off, throw them in a bucket and burn them with the trash.It's a yucky job, but it's free and good for the planet, right? :) For some reason,the pinetrees on our farm don't seem affected hardly at all. However, we have some ground a few miles away and all seven trees there have them every year. The first year, I forgot to take the bucket out of the jeep right when we got home. A few hours later, I went to get them out and, gross, they were hanging from the ceiling and crawling on the spare tire!!