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  • Tent caterpillars swarm over a Leelanau County house. Traverse City Record-Eagle/Marta Hepler Drahos

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  • Numerous tent caterpillars are ssen on a tree in Leelanau County on Friday. Traverse City Record-Eagle/Keith King

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May 22, 2010

Crawlers creep in; Expert advises patience

By KATE JACOBSON Special to the Record-Eagle

TRAVERSE CITY — They're everywhere.

Tiny green crawlers known as the forest tent caterpillar have created a nuisance for Traverse City-area residents in the past few weeks. Populations of the caterpillar, only two inches in length, have exploded in some parts of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, creating a mess for property owners and stress for some woodlands in the region.

Duke Elsner, a viticulture and enology educator for Michigan State University's Extension Service, said the caterpillar is a native species to the area, and shows up in heavy outbreaks every 10 to 15 years. The last big outbreak in the area occurred in Leelanau County about 20 years ago, Elsner said.

"You can have a hot spot just show up in some places," Elsner said. "It's unpredictable."

Some areas also are seeing large infestations of the eastern tent caterpillar, known for their distinctive large nests or webs spun in the bases of cherry or other fruit trees.

Kingsley resident Renee Wallace said the caterpillars have engulfed her home, and compared her lawn and house to a war zone ravaged by biblical plague. She's seen nothing like it in the 18 years she's lived in the area.

Everything in her yard is covered with the bugs, she said. Even when they're cleared away, hundreds more appear within seconds.

"There were so many of them; now they're starving to death so they're dying," Wallace said. "There are piles in the woods, trenches filled with bodies. My house looks like we went through a war."

Bob Heyd, a forest health specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said the past few years of drought have accelerated the growth of the caterpillar population.

Despite the high volumes of bugs and the large amount of defoliation to trees, Elsner said the bug doesn't cause serious harm to most trees.

"(A tree) can take two to three years of really significant defoliation without hurting its long-term future," Elsner said. "A tree that's already ill from another factor or a young tree could potentially be killed."

But the end is in sight for the creepy crawlers. Heyd said most of the caterpillars will be gone by early to mid-June. This year is probably the worst in the cycle for the caterpillars, he said, and next year the area won't see the high populations of this spring.

"What usually happens after two to three years of heavy defoliation, the insects actually eat themselves out of house and home and get some stress," Heyd said.

For next year, Heyd warned that the area should expect to see a large surge in the caterpillar's primary predator, a fly called the Friendly Fly. It's harmless to humans, but can be just as pesky as the caterpillars. The flies will parasitize the cocoons of the caterpillars before the season next year and dramatically reduce the number of caterpillars hatching.

In the meantime, residents looking to get rid of the caterpillars should use water to wash them off their houses. Heyd said chemical pesticides are not effective against the caterpillars because the bugs can migrate. For those concerned about younger or weak trees, burlap bands around their bases are an effective way to reduce defoliation.

Wallace said her clean-up already has begun.

"It's going to take at least two weeks to clean up my house," Wallace said.

For everyone else, Heyd suggests riding out the remainder of the outbreak.

"I'd tell people, it's not going to kill the trees and it's not going to last. The population is going to collapse," Heyd said. "People just need a little bit of perseverance and common sense and to not misuse chemical pesticides."

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