HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Caterpillars and their webs are invading trees in Hall County.
Webworms are part of the moth family and in their caterpillar stage, they spin 3-to-4-foot-long nests with lots of caterpillars inside.
The pests eat the leaves, while the web protects them from birds.
The worms were spotted in mid-July, a month earlier than they usually appear.
“They are freaked out a little bit, because it is kind of scary looking when all of a sudden your tree is involved with this webbing,” said Hall County agriculture extension agent Michael Wheeler, speaking of homeowners. “They think it’s spiders. They think it’s more to what is going on.”
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Wheeler said the worms won’t harm a healthy tree, but it’s shaping up to be a bad year with the number of webworms.
“It just seems to be more of them. Coming up the highways you just see a lot of them, multiple nests in single trees. It just seems like this is a more significant year than normal,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said you can use a broom or stick to get rid of the pests. %
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Wheeler said the worms won’t harm a healthy tree, but it’s shaping up to be a bad year with the number of webworms.
“It just seems to be more of them. Coming up the highways you just see a lot of them. Multiple nests in single trees, it just seems like this is a more significant year than normal,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said you can use a broom to get rid of the pests.
Cox Media Group
