Bagworms

[BRIMOW525]

Here it is, late July and I had a woman call me about bagworms. I'm kinda new to the pesticide application stuff so I was wondering what kind of spray should I use. She told me that they have attacked her leylands and they are about 16' tall. Also the worms are in the cocoon stage. Any help would be great. usually if the plant isn't tall I just pick them off but at 16' I don't think so.

[Ric]

Bag worms --- tent worms still in the cocoon are hard to get. You can burn them but if they are in a big tree it is hard. Liquid Sevin is the old stand by. Spray just before they hatch and their first meal is their last. Orthrene will work also. Any pesticide for chewing insects will solve the problem.

[KirbysLawn]

Hate to say it but if you hit the search button at the top and type in "bagworms" you could have already got your answer and more.

[BRIMOW525]

I hate to say it too, but I did a search and wasn't satisfied with the answers. Not much was said about the bag stage and the posts where from 3 yrs ago. Never know if something else has come out. Thanks Ric. I am going today to look for those products and others.

[KerryB]

Ric is 100% correct. There are other treatments but they are more costly.
In the bag stage and until they hatch in early spring I think your only course of action is to pick them. Sorry.

[CMerLand]

Just treated a half dozen arborvitea with orthene to control a massive invasion on the shrubs. The bagworms are still tiny at this stage but still come out to feed on the folliage to continue to build the bag. By treating with a systemic such as orthene you kill them as they come out to feed rather then trying to penetrate the bag itself.

Still amazed at how fast they went after these shrubs. On the forth of July the damage was quite minimal, limited to two shrubs and looked like sun scorch or winter burn, but in just two weeks there were THOUSANDS of these buggers on the trees and seriously browned out some of the foilage and spread across five of the six bushes.