Ghost Trees: Fall Webworms Infest Dallas-Fort Worth Ahead of Halloween
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My AirPods were blasting Depeche Mode on a recent morning run with my two dogs when all of a sudden I had a faceful of fine, silky thread. I hadn’t even noticed that my neighbor’s tree had seemingly transformed overnight from a healthy hackberry into something you might see in the Addams family’s yard.
The tree’s canopy was covered in so much web it looked like it could be Spiderman’s practice range, with several strings reaching toward the ground, some of which still sported the caterpillar responsible for the infestation.
Though infestations of fall webworms are nothing new, one so widespread is leaving homeowners scratching their heads and pulling web off their homes, cars, and faces.
Fall Webworms
There are two types of caterpillars responsible for webs in trees. Hyphantria cunea is your typical fall webworm.
According to Neil Sperry, a North Texas garden expert, there are usually at least two generations per year, one in the spring and one about now. For this particular worm, not much can be done for the pecans, walnuts, persimmons, and many other Texas trees they attack.
“I have been volunteering at the Dallas Arboretum for over 15 years, and I can recall maybe 10 years ago when there was another webworm outbreak, they had ‘cherry picker’ trucks with buckets that were raised so the infected pecan tree limbs could be cut off,” said Rick Williams, who operates the Dallas Master Gardener help desk. “Just another indication that insecticides don’t work, so mechanical removal was used. I used to have a Mulberry tree in my backyard, and web worms seem to enjoy those leaves as well.”
Normally, these particular worms don’t do a whole lot of damage. As Sperry says, the webworms are infesting trees in the fall, which is after the tree has finished most of its growth cycle. However, they’re hideous, creating bags of worms from which the caterpillars eventually drop. Once the fall webworms have had their fill, they come out of their metamorphosis when they transform into a lovely white, fuzzy moth.
“It’s actually a lovely little creature,” Sperry notes, “but as with humans, its kids make quite a mess.”
The Other Fall Webworm
However, this fall we’re getting a double dose of sticky string in trees with a different species of webworm.
This particular defoliating caterpillar is somewhat of a mystery, attacking hackberry trees all across Dallas-Fort Worth.
“I was not familiar with the hackberry tree caterpillar until multiple questions came into the [Dallas County Master Gardeners] Help Desk recently,” Williams said. “Some research shows that in 2015, the exact ID was a challenge even for experts.”
The perpetrator of these messy webbed canopies was thought to be Sciota celtidella, which is known to attack hackberry trees and has been spotted in the Grapevine and Flower Mound areas of Tarrant and Denton counties. However, when the adults emerged, they were found to be a mixture of webworm species — Sciota rubrisparsella and a moth of the Pococera genus.
That said, there are ways to help support your hackberry or sugarberry trees should they be infested and quickly defoliated by these webworms:
– Supplemental deep watering around the base of trees can help a tree through late summer stress if your soil is very dry
– Most shade trees do not need special fertilization, however you can apply compost and mulch around the base of the tree to help in foot feeding
– For trees in lawns with compacted soil, aeration of the lawn can help the tree better absorb water and nutrients
The City of Euless
The upside to this fall’s massive webworm infestations?
Halloween decorating just got a lot easier.
14 Comments
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So does this kill the tree they are infecting?
Hi there. As the article states, by the time fall webworms infest trees, they’ve done the greater part of their growth cycle and are usually not seriously harmed. However, we’ll have to see with these mystery caterpillars.
Oh we had these in our Pecan trees last year HATE them! We got them out and burned!
Pattydmode says Depeche Mode always
My pecan trees were all infected with these green small worms. I tried spraying them with bug killer, didn’t work. When leaves were totally infected, I used muriatic acid in my sprayer..and sprayed my trees. Next day the worms were gone, leaves stayed green. Acid did not kill the leaves. Neighbors still have infestation
The identification that I came up with is the inch worm in the northeast Tarrant area. Leaf roller lots on your oaks.
But of course not saying webworm not out there also just haven’t seen inch worm do leaf damage like this. We’ve decided too bag leafs and use a systemically pest killer in spring and hope they don’t rtn. Thank You
Inch worms or silk worms. Just went through thisast week. Yall think the trees are bad? Just wait until they drop, it’s horrifying. We couldnt couldn’t walk out the front door, everything was covered, the top of our fence, the windows, we have 4 hackberry trees on our property here in river oaks, never seen anything like this.
So how do you get rid of them without hurting the trees?
Have the hackberry leaf roller in all 21 hackberry trees! Its absolutely disgusting. They are dropping out of trees on strings of the webbing. Also dropping black poop that looks like pepper. Can’t even be out in backyard! It looks like a horror movie!
OMG these things are not only causing a mess in my tree but also in my pool! Their droppings and their actual bodies are ending up all in my pool driving me crazyyyyyyy!!!!
My little Maltipoo dog gets sticky stuff and leaves and twigs on her feet and halfway up her legs. I can brush and pick off the leaves and twigs, but she is still sticky. I am thinking of using alcohol or maybe hydrogen peroxide to get it off. Oh, probably try Dawn first.
4 mature hackberry s infested….blew web and leaves off with 20′ power washer and extension…. So what do I do in the spring?
Are these fall webworm things, that leave what’s left of a leaf covered in a web that looks like u dumped a pepper shaker on it….
So those are worms….
Stupid A!@ pecan tree & crepe mertyles from what Ive looked up, are infested with these damn aphids – lime green looking flying bugs, little smaller than say a moth.
ENTIRE backyard & table, chair, cushion, potted plant, umbrellas, etc is completely COATED with this sticky $#*@. Ridiculous term called honeydew from aphids, which is aphid crap literally…. Walked barefoot in yard, disgusting!! Wear shoes come inside & sounds like u have Big Red stuck to the bottom of shoes!! Why is it so bad this year? U think.its tree sap but its not.
And it coats your car, which is difficult to get off but if u don’t, it will ruin the clear coat finish on your car.
How do u get rid of these, how do u get all.this sticky crap off of everything else in your yard?
Howard Garrett, the “Dirt Doctor” has these recommendations to control Webworms:
– https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Webworm-Newsletter_vq1665.htm
– https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Webworm_vq358.htm