Are the evergreens in your yard looking a little brown, or do you see an excess of cocoons that look a little bit like pine cones? Then you may have a bagworm infestation on your hand.
Bagworms are small caterpillars that feed on your trees in June and July. While having a few bagworms is mostly just a cosmetic issue, a large infestation can kill your trees. If you have bagworms in the garden, take care of them right away because they’ll return year after year.
This post will cover everything you need to know about dealing with bagworms.
Understanding the bagworm life cycle
Bagworm eggs are laid each fall by one-year-old females and overwinter in bags. The eggs hatch in early April and begin feasting on your trees. As they grow, they begin to form their own bags that attach to your trees’ stems with silk-like thread.
Bagworms will feed for about six weeks, enlarging their pine cone-shaped cocoons as they continue to grow. Early June into July is when homeowners usually spot the cocoons and the damage caused by bagworms.
Males grow wings throughout the summer, and once fall arrives, they fly out to mate with females who never leave their tree. After mating, females lay up to 500 eggs before dying.
The males die at about the same time, and the life cycle begins again.
Controlling bagworms in your yard
The good news is that your neighborhood birds hunt bagworms. The bad news is that they don’t get all of them or prevent a bagworm infestation for next season. Here are the things you or an exterminator can do to control them:
- Handpicking: The most eco-friendly way to get rid of bagworms is to handpick their cocoons as soon as you spot them. Burn the cocoons in a campfire after you’ve picked them out of the tree. Be sure to call a professional to pick the cocoons that are high up in the trees.
- Pesticides: If the infestation is bad enough, handpicking won’t do the trick. Instead, you’ll need to call an exterminator to spray chemicals. Because the chemicals only kill the bagworms when ingested, this method must be taken in early June for it to work.
How can Excellence Pest Control help?
Just like with any pest infestation, handling bagworms in the garden is best left to the professionals. Our team of professionals can do our best to handpick the cocoons in your trees right now. We can also spray your trees with an all-natural bacterial insecticide, but it may be too late in the season for it to take effect.
But it’s not too late to spray your trees with a chemical that will prevent bagworms from returning next fall! The sooner you hire our team, the better your chance at avoiding an infestation.
Contact us today
Whether the infestation is large or small, call Excellence Pest Control today to handle your bagworm infestation and to treat your property for any other pests that may be lurking.