Judging by the silky nests in N.B. trees, it's been a good year for the fall webworm
CBC
If you can stand getting close enough, it's like a scene from a horror movie — countless long, dark bodies writhe and wriggle inside a silky sack of creepiness.
They can often be seen attached to tree branches around this time of year, but if you think there are more of them around, you'd be right.
Rob Johns, a forest insect ecologist with the Canadian Forest Service in Fredericton, has also noticed more of them this year.
The clumps of cloth-like netting are caused by the fall webworm, a native caterpillar species in New Brunswick.
Johns said the webworm is a relative of the tent caterpillar and very common in eastern North America. But where the tent caterpillar feeds in the spring, the webworm feeds "later in the season when a lot of insects have sort of run their course," he said.
They typically feed on the leaves of apple, ash, cherry, elm, maple, and other trees and shrubs. Johns said they produce a silk that they use to make tents around their feeding areas.
He said the tents provide climate control and protection from predators. Inside their covered picnic areas, they feed on the leaves.
While they're not the most attractive addition to a tree, Johns said "they're not generally a big problem."
Although they destroy the leaves they've tented around, "because the trees are so close to dropping their leaves at this time of year, their impact is not the same as it is for another insect — where they would be feeding when the leaves are still growing and they're trying to gather resources."
That's why tent caterpillars do a lot more damage — they feed in the spring.
Full-grown larvae can be almost four centimetres in length.
According to Natural Resources Canada website, fall webworms can be yellow with dark stripes and spots, or they may be bluish-black without yellow. The adult moths are nearly pure white and have a wing span of nearly four centimetres.
"The insects overwinter as pupae in the soil. In June and July, the adult moths emerge from the soil. Females begin laying their masses of eggs in July. The eggs begin to hatch in mid-July."
It's at this point that the larvae build the silky nests now visible in trees all over the province.
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