Tent Caterpillar Garland Community Garden - Morning of April 17, 2015 8 AM

It's confirmed!  They are everywhere--even down at the Discovery Gardens.  After finding no less than four in one area of the Garland Community Garden this morning, I attended the Texas Discovery Gardens plant sale and saw them all over the place in the butterfly gardens.  Below is a photo I took of two of them there today.  When I asked the tour guide what they were doing about them, he replied:  "Nothing."  The thought is that by allowing nature to take its course that the eco-system will be brought back into balance.  Apparently, even though tent caterpillars can defoliate entire trees, the  trees grow their leaves back and no permanent damage is done.  Birds, of course, love the caterpillars.

Tent Caterpillars have taken up residence at the Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas - April  17, 2015 3 PM

More on Tent Worms (Tent Caterpillars)

Malocosoma americanum or tent worms do not pose a serious threat according to most experts.  They are sometimes confused with fall webworms but tent worms are active in the spring while webworms are active in the fall.  Tent worms make their nests in the forks of branches and webworms make their nests at the tip of branches.  Their favorite trees are ornamental fruit trees followed by ash, willow and maple trees.  They will also munch on nearby plants.

Remove them in the early morning.  They tend to be late risers--particularly if the morning is cool.  You can get them while they are still in their nest. 

If you feel the need to kill them yourself, this can be done by dumping them in soapy water.  Contact insecticides such as bacillus thuringiensis (BT) also work well when infestations are large.  Apply BT directly to foliage and to the insect.  This is an organic pesticide that does not harm other wildlife.

Tent Caterpillars (the larvae) turn into brown moths.

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LGG Members team up to sew Paca Poo bags for the Garland Marketplace.

Ready for the Garland Marketplace

Our truck is mostly packed for tomorrow morning--the first Saturday in 2015 for the Garland Marketplace--downtown Garland.  We hope you can make it.  In fact, we hope that we can make it as well.  if it keeps raining.   .   .

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The wildflowers at the Garland Community Garden are making an appearance.

In late fall of 2014, I threw out a bunch of wildflower seeds and now we are beginning to see the results.  Below are two photos I took on Friday, April 17, 2015.

and the potatoes keep growing--right out of the sack!