God Damn Caterpillars
 

ate my red leaf maple clean.....no leaves left

now they are working on my paper bark maple


keeping them watered heavily to reduce the stress

hoping the trees will recover and push out new leaves

Need to spray them with a systemic incecticidal soap each spring. Not to be confused with the spermacidal soap that my wife asked for at Home Depot when we had the same problem.
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these ae mature trees....60+ ft tall

Arborist have sprayers that can do tall, mature tree spraying. Not sure if you can rent one somewhere.

Not as severe here, but shredded my Ranier cherry tree leaves, tree responded by withering the fruit to make more leaves.... :cens:

Our flowering cherry took a beating.

I live in the middle of an Oak forest. Looks like Winter

I don't think they will, once the leaves are set it's done.

Japanese beetles do a number on my cherry every other year. Only thing you can really do is spray.
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The spray works
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yeah my oaks have taken a beating this year too. I used to have them sprayed, pretty expensive and if your neighbor doesn't do it you will get a lot of damage from their caterpillars too as they drift in the wind. Does suck though. It looks like fall in my driveway. Luckily I have very large white oaks so they tend to stay eating them and have so far avoided eating my ornamental's. I have seen it so bad in years past where they eat the pines and even grass if they deplete all the trees. I don't think it will be that bad. My autos look like camouflage.

some branches on my huge oaks are picked clean, but still plenty of leaves from them. some of them are weak though, so in the heavy winds last week I got tons of leaves and branches down on the lawn, was a pain to clean up!

Our friends in Richmond have bare pine trees and the lawn is now being eaten. We're over in Wakefield; not many gypsy moths, but we have winter moth caterpillars munching on maples and oaks.

I have all oaks in the back yard and have not been able to sit on the deck all year. Had to get out the leaf blower last week and blew most of the crap off the deck and back stairs and outside shower. I did the driveway as I live on a steep hill and was like walking on little ball bearings on trash day. blew it into a pile and used a snow shovel to scoop it up. barrel and 1/2 of caterpillar crap and little leaf fragments they chewed off just from the driveway. put it in the garden, not sure if that was a good move or not.

I can hear them munching trees while on the deck. they sure do poop a lot, like dj I used my leafblower to clean deck etc. worst I've seen here.

I don't think that is what you are hearing Don. At least what I was hearing with the winter moths was the crap falling through what was left of the leaves. Seems to be done with for this year and they did not hit my maple as bad as the past three years.

Yes it is Ross. Documented in several places on the 'net. They have completely stripped my big yard oaks, my apple trees and now my 200 year old white pines.

That's incorrect Spence. I lived through this in 81 and it was worse. The leaves come back before Fall. Not as big or robust but they will come back this year.

Not what the arborist said but could also be dependent on species.
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Pure Spence,the alleged expert said it, so it must be true....
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So far i have managed to dodge the bullet for the most part. They are kicking my Ahole neighbors ass big time, his white oaks are hurting. I can hear them all night with all the crap falling from the trees. Just up the road a lot of trees are half gone, and a half mile away a whole stretch of road is gone. One of my neighbors is the owner of Northern Tree and he had a pumper truck at his mansion treating his land.

The forests are taking a beating. The Emerald Ash Borer is knocking on our doors now potentially taking 90% of the white ash. White pines are getting beat up from a couple different angles. Hemlocks are on their way out. Then the Asian longhorn beetle kicking ass in the Worcester area killing a lot of species but really killing the maples.

On the plus side... Should be easy raking this fall. Raking always coincides with the fall run and the neighbors shake their head at me every year.

Legit had a dude take days off work to defend his home from the catepillar invasion 😂
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Yea, what would an expert arborist know about specific pests and species of trees???:rtfm:

The #^&#^&#^&#^&ers will not kill the tree. I have heard it before from experts, horticulturists and online heros! My oaks get skinned every year to the bare bones. Then they move to the pines. They make a mess but don't kill big trees regardless of eating all of the leaves. It's horse #^&#^&#^&#^&. Unless I have rare zombie trees.
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Ross you can hear them eating for sure. You can also hear the #^&#^&#^&#^& coming down like soft hail. The crap and the chewing make a different sound.
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Your life is a pile of misinformation.
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I actually had to rake leaves yesterday from a 4' dia. white Oak that is nude now. Had an inch of partially eaten leaves on drive way.
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And your track record is one of vague, childish and snarky pinpricks. I hope you're a Trump supporter...you have a lot in common.

Good one Jeff,the Donald would be proud of you. Imitation is the sincerest form you know. Find an expert to learn more.
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Not to jump on Jeff's side here, but, isn't that usually a good idea?

Yes,until you learn that experts are occasionally wrong but still believe them despite evidence to the contrary. Sometimes you actually have to depend on experience. Common sense can also be your friend on occasion. Some people rely on bull stein to the point they look foolish. So, while an expert may say trees die from bugs he may be right. However,some will survive and flourish despite the setback. I would not expect everyone to understand these complexities.
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