10 Ways to Get Rid of Bagworms, and Control Their Spread & Treat
How to get rid of bagworms Your trees might get hurt, leaving you with a problem of browning leaves and falling pine needles in your backyard; the cause of this might be bagworms. Right now, you are probably thinking about how to control bagworms. Just keep reading to learn how to eliminate bagworms from your garden. The control of bagworms begins by understanding what these worms are all about. Some 100 varieties of plants serve as their food for Bagworms. About pines, their bags can be mistaken for little pine cones since they appear that way when fully grown. Bagworms are slow spreaders because the female doesn’t fly around; winds can blow them from plant to plant, spreading them efficiently.
What Are Bagworms?
You could think of bagworms as those longish, slender cases made out of silk that one sees hanging from evergreen trees during autumn only. Nevertheless, such seemingly innocent silk can hold up to 1000 eggs, which will hatch later in spring and early summer before moving onto your beautiful green branches, thus requiring effective measures against these pests.
Eastern red cedars, junipers, and arborvitae are the most common targets of Eastern red cedar bagworms in Ryan Lawn & Tree Midwest locations. Sometimes pines, spruce bald cypress, maple, box elder, sycamore, willow, black locust oaks, and roses.
How to Get Rid of Bagworms
Knowing how to get rid of bagworms is vital. Bagworm treatment can only be initiated at certain stages in their life cycle. Treatment for bagworms must commence in May during the hatchling period. These larvae will overwinter inside bags that the last generation females established. Hatching occurs between May and early June while eating plants until August. They begin constructing a bag of silk and plant parts around their bottom in August and eventually bury themselves inside for four more weeks as pupae stages. In September and October, the female will release sex hormones that attract the males. This male leaves his sack to go and join the female bags where she can lay 500+ eggs after mating with them. Of course, you want to begin bagworm control measures before these worms ever get to this stage, or they will surely be out of control.
Life-Cycle Of A Bagworm
How to get rid of bagworms The life cycle of a bagworm has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
- Bagworm Eggs: The eggs that overwinter (in the year-old female bags) begin hatching around late April or early May.
- Young Bagworm Larvae: Young caterpillars immediately start feeding and making sacks. When they expand, the sack grows until it is about two inches long. They tie the sack to a tree with silk.
- Bagworm Pupal Stage: The bag serves as a cocoon in August.
- Bagworm Adult Stage: In late August and September, male bagworm moths become mature adults that fly in search of non-flying females in their bags for mating. Once copulation is over, hundreds of small white eggs are laid inside her old pupal skin before she falls out of the bag and dies.
What Does A Bagworm Look Like?
- Bag: A 2-inch-long brown bag with a cocoon shape is the most conspicuous indicator of bagworm infestation, but once it has hatched, it undergoes several changes. Their “bag” comes from its silk and pieces of tree, which eventually are filled with eggs.
- Larvae: When they hatch, the larvae will appear as tiny black dots as light as a feather and about the size of pinheads. These caterpillars can “fly” to other trees, where they build their new houses using silk. Once full-grown, these larvae measure 1” in length; their abdomens are dark brown, while their heads and thoraxes are white with black spots.
- Adults: The adult bagworm is a small moth with clear wings measuring around 1”. They have a black hairy body. Male bagworms are grayish-black in color. The female’s body is soft, yellowish-white, and almost naked, except for some woolly hairs in the posterior part of its abdomen. They lack wings, functional legs, or even eyes or antennae.
How to Organically Kill Bagworms
To organically kill bagworms, just let the birds handle it. The best way to organically kill bagworms is by letting birds go around the tree and eating the worms. But this does not solve the problem of bagworms. You can go around in your yard during autumn and pluck off sacks from trees. Although this can be a boring task if you have many of them, it could be one good method to eliminate them naturally. Therefore, you might ask yourself,
“What do I use to kill bagworms”?
Some insecticides can help get rid of bagworm larvae effectively. They work best when the larvae are tiny and still emerging from their sacks in May. However, if you wait until later, they will be too large for easy killing. Bagworm treatment isn’t very hard as long as you time your approach correctly within their lifecycle cycle as worm-like insects. Remember that May would be a good month to act since it’s close to hatchlings.
What Do Bagworms Eat?
The bagworm’s larvae eat much more than any other and thus cause a lot of harm. When they are in larval stage, these insects consume evergreen needles and leaves from deciduous trees. During heavy infestation of bagworms on your plants, only the main veins of the leaves will be left. Bagworm larvae only come out to feed and retreat into their shelters at the sight of danger.
According to scholars’ research, this insect feeds on over 100 types of trees, though it prefers evergreens like:
- Red cedar
- Juniper
- Arborvitae
- Spruce
Other common casualties inflicted by bagworm include:
- Pine
- Bald cypress
- Maple
- Boxelder
- Sycamore
- Willow
- Black locust
- Oaks
What Damage Do Bagworms Do?
How to get rid of bagworms Commonly, evergreens such as cedar, arborvitae, juniper, and spruce are the most preferred plants by bagworms; however, they can attack more than 128 species of trees, including evergreen. They do most damage when in their larvae stage, whereby the caterpillars feed on buds, needles, and plant material while forming their bags, making branch tips become brown before dying. On some occasions, when infestation is heavy, bagworms can eat up to eighty percent of the tree, killing an entire evergreen. In deciduous trees, leaves with small holes made by bagworms cause defoliation. Even if these trees survive without bagworm control measures, they may still be weakened and thus more prone to emerald ash borer attacks and diseases.
What Do Bagworms Turn Into?
The word ‘bagworm’ conjures up images of larvae, i.e., wingless animals that dwell in a brown cocoon and then go out to eat. The larvae will pupate inside their bags in August. Adult moths emerge from these bags when they are full-grown males. They have small, hairy bodies, dark colors, and clear wings. On the other hand, female bagworms remain wingless with no legs, antennae, or eyes. Their bodies are soft and light-colored. Unlike males, females look more like a “bagworm” and usually sit down, waiting for a male to come by and lay eggs inside them so that he may fertilize them later on, at about 300-1000 each time, before she dies.
What Causes Bagworms?
Briefly, other bagworms cause more bagworms. Every bagworm’s egg sack (bag) may have about 300-1000 eggs. These hatch and become bigger caterpillars that initially appear like small black dots. The larvae spread out while young by “flying” to other trees on silk threads from their first nest. They then construct another bag with the same host tree’s silk and plant materials as soon as they reach this phase. At the mature stage, female bagworms deposit their eggs in the case they developed in and thus start the process all over again.
8 Ways to Prevent of Bagworms
How to get rid of bagworms To prevent bagworms most effectively, it’s better to do it in late fall or early spring because bagworms hatch towards the end of May through to the beginning of June.
Handpick Bagworm Off
If you find only a couple of bagworm cocoons on your plants, you caught and discovered the problem quite early. To prevent them from becoming uncontrollable, take away the bags by hand and drop them into soapy water for their larvae to suffocate.
Cut Dead And Infested Branches
You should cut off infested branches to prevent the extension of a bagworm infection in other parts of a tree or shrub. This means the debris should always be burnt or sealed up in an air-tight bag with no chance of survival for the worms.
To prevent bagworm infestations, remove piles of excess leaves and clear unnecessary twigs, pine cones, and other plant debris, providing fewer places for bagworms to attach their cocoons.
Use Neem Oil
Neem oil is an organic strategy to eradicate pests such as aphids, spider mites, and caterpillars. Normally, it has come as a concentrate. Mix neem oil with mild dish soap and water, then spray it on affected plants.
Bug Spray
If the host plant is highly infested, chemical control methods should be considered to eradicate bagworms. Another effective D.I.Y solution to this problem is spraying Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a bacteria spray that kills bagworms upon hatching while safe for pets and children. Additionally, you can use a natural product called spinosad, which is produced by fermenting soil bacteria. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for best results.
Make Sure Your Yard Is Bagworm Predator-Friendly
One way of naturally getting rid of unwanted pests is by attracting their predators to do it for you. As an example, sparrows are common predators of bagworms. To increase the number of sparrows in your compound, put bird baths that are low in height and spread sunflower seeds, cracked corn, millet, and safflower seeds.
Plant Moth-Repellent Plants
Introduce plants that repel these moths naturally to discourage female bagworm moths from laying eggs in or around your yard. Though there are several different types of plants to choose from, moths hate the smell of herbs such as sage, tarragon, lavender, borage, and rosemary.
Release Parasitic Wasps
Beneficial wasps are beneficial insects that can help control various pests like bagworms. They will lay their eggs inside the bagworm when released near a bagworm infestation, preventing the infestation as the wasp larvae feed on baby bagworms. They can be bought from garden centers or online.
Turn Off Outdoor Lights
The more months you do not invite into your yard, the fewer bagworms will be left for you to deal with. Moths are attracted to lights more, especially during dark hours at night. Ensure that you switch off your patio lights or put them on an automatic switch so they go off when there is no movement, thus discouraging the presence of bagworm moths.
Final Thoughts
Bagworms can cause destruction. However, you can protect your trees and shrubs through prompt response and appropriate techniques. Regular inspection, manual removal of pests, and effective treatments will help control these pests. Always take proactive measures towards that end to keep your yard healthy and beautiful!
Quick Tip: “Bagworm control is essential, remove bags manually, use insecticides, or introduce natural predators to protect your trees and shrubs effectively.”
FAQs
What is the best thing to kill bagworms?
Use insecticides with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or spinosad during early larval stages.
What month do you treat bagworms?
Late spring to early summer (May-June) when larvae are small.
Will Dawn dish soap kill bagworms?
It may help suffocate them, but it’s not as effective as insecticides.
How do you permanently get rid of plaster bagworms?
Remove their cases, reduce humidity, clean walls, and seal cracks to prevent them.
