Bagworms

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Created: Tuesday, 13 August 2024 08:36

Seeing bronzing on your plants, the thinning of your evergreens and what appears to be brown bags hanging off your foliage can be a concerning sight. These are all signs of bagworms, a type of insect that can quietly affect your trees and before you notice, it’s too late. Bagworm management can happen anytime during the year, and Joe’s Market Basket has the tips to keep your plants safe.

The warning signs
Bagworm caterpillars can affect a variety of plants, but they tend to target evergreens most frequently, like arborvitae, cypress, juniper and spruce to name a few. The first signs of bagworm damage are bronzing on the leaves and thinning of the plant. Bronzing refers to when the foliage turns brown, and this spreads down the entire plant as the bagworms make more progress and multiply. The plant usually does not recover from the bronzing, and the leaves will defoliate, eventually leading to the complete death of the evergreen.
The bagworms themselves are housed inside of a protective brown bag. As the bagworms grow, the bags they construct eventually bunch together in spots along the evergreen, looking like diamond shapes or even appearing to be pinecones from afar.

How to get rid of bagworms
The best way to get rid of bagworms is by finding them and either plucking them with your hands or cutting them off with scissors. It is ideal to do this step in the winter or early spring to remove bags that could contain eggs and before the caterpillars grow in size. Examining the plants in your yard early can prevent major bagworm damage later. If the bagworm infestation has not spread widely across your plant, hand removal also works in the summer, but it is essential to throw the bags into soapy water to kill the worms so they don’t find their way back to your yard.

It’s possible the bagworm infestation will grow to multiple branches and then spread to other plants in the area, especially in the later summer months. If this happens, an insecticide might be the best option to limit the damage of a wide-ranging infestation. Insecticides vary in effectiveness, so make sure to check warning labels and what insecticides are safest for your region.