County Agent Update

Tent Caterpillars Galore

Over the last week, there have been many unknown visitors in local trees. Tent caterpillars, both Eastern and Forest, have made a large appearance this year in Williams County. Although they are around every spring, I haven’t seen this many out and about the past few years. Tent caterpillars feed on tree leaves; they like the following trees; ash, aspen, basswood, birch, chokecherry, cottonwood, elm, maple, pin cherry, Poplar and other hardwoods.

These caterpillars only have one life cycle, come end of June they will disappear from our trees and go make their cocoons. There may be many caterpillars around your yard in the spring, but these ones are pretty easy to tell, look for the following to make identification. Eastern tent caterpillars are hairy, brown caterpillars with an off-white stripe down the middle. Forest tent caterpillars are hairy, blue in color, with a line of white circles down its back, the white circles have a black outline.

With mature healthy trees, moderate damage to the leaves done by the caterpillars won’t cause any long term harm. If you have young trees, there could be some effects. Thankfully, these caterpillars don’t bite so you can remove them from the young trees in your yard. Using an insecticide that you can buy at any garden center will kill them from your trees and won’t harm any plants. Insecticides like Sevin, Orthene, Bug-B-Gon, malathion and other insecticides registered for trees will work. If you are unsure of the caterpillar, bring one into the office or send in a picture to help with identification. Our office is located at 302 E Broadway, Williston or call 701-577-4595.

Welcoming Katalin

NDSU Extension Williams County is excited to welcome Katalin Quale (pronounced cod-uh-lynn) to our office. She is the new Family Community Wellness Agent, and has many wonderful ideas for our county. She is a Williston native and is excited to be working for NDSU, where she has received her Bachelor Degree in Dietetics. If you have any questions or would like to welcome her into this position, give her a call at 701-577-4595

 

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