I was out in the yard cutting up some old lumber when Courtney yelled to me, “You should come take a look at this bush!” She was staring at a shrub on our side yard. It’s near to the driveway and typically looks like hell. It’s in a spot which gets all the snow thrown on it during the winter months. It’s always been a little sad and depressed looking. I went back to cutting wood.
A few moments later Courtney repeated her call, this time saying, “You should hear the worms on this bush!” I was caught a bit off guard, so I went to survey the situation. Courtney pointed out to me these little things which were laying on the branches of the shrub. “Tent worms,” she told me, ” They’re everywhere on the bush.” Sure, I thought, “Everywhere…” But as I looked closer I realized that she wasn’t exaggerating at all. These things were everywhere.
That’s when she said, “Listen to them…” We hushed and listened. I could hear the crackling of these things destroying our bush. It sounded like Rice Crispies in milk. It was utterly disgusting and creepy.
I went back to cutting wood while Courtney went inside to look for any sort of treatment online. She found a few sites which suggested killing one of them in front of the others, which would scare the others away. Or picking them off and putting them in a burlap bag. These options were nice, but a little more humane than I was hoping. I drove to Home Depot to find something a little more potent.
I found an insecticide which specifically worked with tent worms/caterpillars. It is a concentrate so I need to purchase a sprayer as well. I’ve always thought sprayers were for old farts with nothing better to do than walk around their yard obliterating the most minute annoyances. Now, I am that old guy.
When I began spraying the bush, I kid you not, the bush moved on its own. Leaves seemed to curl up, shunning away from the sprayer. With every motion the bush seemed to fight back, moving a bit in a different direction. The truth was that these tent worms realized what was happening and were quite pissed about it. They were crawling and agitated. I was grossed out.
I checked on the progress of the death spray. I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that these things might still be crawling around our bushes. I went outside to find small piles of the worms laying underneath the bush. Victory was mine!
As I stood up I noticed ants starting to carry the carcasses away. I thought about cleaning up the dead bodies so the ants might go away but then I figured nature would take it’s course.
