Fall Webworm, Tiger Moth

We are aware of having these webworms two different summers. Our first experience seeing them was on an ageing apple tree. Not being familiar with much of the natural world at the time, we cut down the branches they were attached to and burned them.

The more we learned about birds and bugs, we regretted doing this. Some birds can eat these worms without the hairs harming their stomachs and other birds are able to break through the worms exterior to eat the soft insides.

The children found a tent this last summer and showed me. Instead of harming them, I watched them with fascination. It was neat seeing them wiggle around. Later we saw an Oriole feeding in that spot. One day I went to check on them and all that remained was some of the webbing.
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We call them tent worms, they will destroy a tree in a short period of time. We burn the tents before they turn to moth.