Canker worm Plague Hits Charlotte, NC

[Morice]

Hey fellow arborists:
Here in Charlotte, NC we are currently experiencing a plague of biblical proportion......Canker worms are absolutely destroying hardwoods in ceratin areas throughout the city. It has actually been occuring for years but last year and this year seem to be especially horrible. Approx. 8 years ago the city did some aerial sprays of Bt, but apparently that is no longer in the budget; however the city does subcontract some companies to wrap certain trees in certain areas with physical traps using tar paper and Tanglefoot. Homeowners can't even come out of their homes without getting covered in canker worms and webbing. These guys are eating so much that it is actually raining canker worm fesces.
In late fall & early winter I use physical traps (Bug Barrier)to try to stop the females (wingless moths) from cruising up to the top of trees to mate with the winged males. I also tried some sprays of Bt this year when the canker worms first emerged. I realize that both treatments are just "band-aids" and not really an answer to the problem.
I was curious if anyone has been dealing with cankerworms on this level?

 

[Chum]

Yes, here on everything quercus right as the new leaves attain some darker green. Looks like Agent Orange was sprayed, defoliating entire regions.

Used to be we could watch the movements North 1/4mi per year, some areas prone to repeat infestations, most becoming normal the following years. However in light of other diseases, the energy it takes to refoliate leaves the oaks susceptable to a myriad of other pathogens, which we are also currently experiencing. Losses of historical proportions.

I've taken it in stride knowing we can address individual trees, B/T in the past but soap is the effective treatment, mostly two applications a week apart. It's I believe part of a bigger picture, one of changes that allow increases in pest populations while diminishing higher orders up the food chain, along with movements into areas from temp increases that have no native natural controls to such population spikes. We have to pay some prices for behavior, this is but one. Study the Tongass National Forest and learn a little of what those in power would rather you wouldn't.

Bacillus treatments have lost effect from a decade of use, adaptations occur. My little friend soap however, is benefitting from the digestive systems of these little munchers not being able to adapt to it. Being the only effective treatment offered, in spite of a mass of pest control businesses sprouting up like wildfire - and their slick advertising techniques (like Iraq caused 9/11), I'm skyrocketing my rates to compete dollar for dollar to the chem heads, but pocketing an astronomical profit rate. If ExxonMobile can windfall, so can I. Only I ain't gonna get sick, they are.

 

[guymayor]

Morice, how many stripes of what color?

wilt what kind of soap--ivory, dawn, safers?

 

[Chum]

The cheapest, low-phosphate non-scented variety.

Although I'm supplying with Medina Bio-S, from 5gal containers about 15 gallons a month this season. It's the same compound used to breakdown hydrocarbons from aviation fuel spills at the old Kelly Air Force base, now civilian.

It's my all-purpose surfactant, wetting agent, water surface tension adjuvant.

It kills worms, period. Also aphids and any other sucking insects. The wash off helps breakdown laterized soils and leads to remediation of compaction. It won't hurt me or any other mammal and it's 1/80 the price of useless chemical toxic agents being pushed - plus I don't need my TPCL...pest control license that's nothing more than a permit to poison without any of the knowledge necessary to protect oneself or the environment.

 

[pancake]

Talk to Billy Styles the Shrub Dr in Charlotte. He is the man for PHC.

 

[sean_freeman]

Oakwilt, I realy like the fact that you're using such a low impact approach to treating what is towards the end of the causal chain of events for trees under stress

What your application method? Got your own spray rig? What sized tank?

 

[Chum]

100 gallon, 350psi. There's never a need to "blast" the tree...just an adaquate misting. I can get up to 65 feet. Third used sprayer and never paid over $450 for a rig...just had to rebuild the pumps on each and a quart of fire engine red paint. There's a proudly displayed sign on the side that says NON-TOXIC. A 5.5 horsepower Brigg's new is under $265. I'm on my fifth.

Just learned my lesson the hard way on toxic chems, not just health effects but seeing repeated treatments becoming more and more useless. From an economic viewpoint, I'm far more profitable than the bells and whistle folk. The only impediment left is the information is still coming from the schools by people who's research is funded by...the toxics industry. Yes, it's as simple as that.

On smaller yearling pecans or quercus who's leaves are food sources...just try a hand spray bottle of dish soap and look for yourself, give it a week and repeat. Again, it's that simple. And your immune system will thankyou for it too. Average urban yard w/ 8-15 oaks takes .30 minutes, 30-50 gallons, $350 to $450 invoice, twice in April, then I just move next door and repeat, use their water to load again, and off for two to four more to make my day.

Oh, did I say it breaks down to costing me around $4.00 to make a tank?

 

[sean_freeman]

Nice one. Have you got into applying compost teas?

 

[Chum]

On fireant mounds, yes. There appears to be some unexpected bacterial benefits from the tea that poison's the ant's fungal food stores. On the trees I'm into something else, not entirely unlike the Ctea, but with some micro-elements (tissue testing in diseased trees [[insect-vectored fungal parasites]] reveals severe zinc and iron deficiencies) and also some first-stage pseudomonas that developed an apetite for this fungus. Also a hint of copper sulfate added.

Keep in mind I'm targeting oak wilt in my spraying programs - the forest tent caterpiller and inchworms are a sideline in my work. Those are our current major threats. I realize the defoliating worms are not pathogenic per se, but several seasonal patterns in the same area open-up the hosts for a myriad of previously thought "non-pathogenic" threats. They are certainly pathogenic now. So I treat the infestations as if they are beginning-stage events of far more serious epidemics to come, many here now. Still, it's only tree by tree...as per the client's wishes. I'd like to see a state-sponsered program to aerially apply to thousands of acres during these infestations, it just might save some trees at a time when we're losing too many of them - and they are needed much more than some [censored]'s war.