Annual easter tent caterpillar infestation

[Donna]

This will be our second spring in the house we recently bought. Last spring I was astonished at the numbers of caterpillars that appeared. They got everywhere outside, and were so thick on the ground that it was hard to avoid stepping on them. They cocooned (everwhere, on everything), and although I spent the summer picking cocoons off the outdoor furniture and out of the garage, I'm still finding the occasional one now. I did some research, and these seem to be eastern tent caterpillars. They leave their eggs in patches in the crotches of trees, and since we have about an acre of woods behind our house, I'm not going to be able to kill them by getting rid of the nests. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep them away from the house/yard? They are going to hatch and appear any day now.

Thanks!

Donna

[Goedjn]

Burn the nests when you can, and pray for a really cold winter.

[newfysnapshot]

Not sure if this will work for your infestation but we use dish liquid soap and put it into a sprayer conected to our hose and spray the trees and grass around the house keeps most bugs aways from the trees. This may keep them away from your house.

[Chuck B.]

Hi, Are you sure you are seeing eggs? It could be cocoons and if so you will soon see a lot of moths/butterflys. I had the same type of worms you are talking about. They would strip my mahogany tree every spring just as the new leaves came out. They then disappeared and new leaves popped out. I sprayed "liquid 7" on the webs to slow them down, but never got rid of them. Good luck.