Our Journey Through Caterpillar Hell

Right now, in mid-June, Northern Michigan is in the midst of the worst Tent Caterpillar infestation in remembered history (well, MY remembered history anyway). The "normal" tent worms have already decimated the wild cherry trees (and are working on my rose bushes, grrrr), and now the Forest Tent Worms are wreaking havoc on the hardwood forests in the area!

This is clearly evident by the forests behind the barn property.


The right side of the forest has been stripped by the little buggers, it looks like an early Springtime forest! The left side has been mostly untouched, and that's what the whole thing SHOULD look like!

The insects are stripping the maples and beeches of every bit of greenery it seems! The damage is awe-inspiring in its destruction!


This past weekend I took Quzqo on a nice 3 hour trail ride on Saturday, by ourselves, and unfortunately our path took us right THROUGH caterpillar-infested forests. Not only did we have to look at this mess, but also caterpillars constantly falling from the canopy, landing on my shoulders, legs, head, hands, the horse's neck or head or rump. Or else coming across them hanging at eye-level from threads of silk, lowering themselves to the ground so they can move on to the next tree. If you stopped and listened, you hear a constant soft pattering sound like raindrops...which is either falling worms, or falling worm poo. Needless to say, we made it out of those woods in record time!

I mean, seriously, LOOK AT THIS mess:


I'm no fan of insecticides, but you can't tell me a mass spraying with BT or something couldn't have helped! Er, that'd be assuming the state of Michigan had any money, ha ha, silly me.

We took pretty much the same route on Sunday, only driving this time. Although we didn't go through the forest, thankfully the trail is too narrow for my cart. But I was able to get more photos, such as this:


All the little bits of leaves on the top edge are what's falling from the trees. The black specks are caterpillar poo. It's mind-boggling to see all this poo over a mile-long stretch of road...imagine how many caterpillar rectums produced all those little poos! And how much food it took to produce all that! I guess the bright side will be that the forest floor will be well-fertilized!

And the little poo-producers themselves, humping along like inchworms across the road. They ranged in size from 1/2" to 1-1/2", very pretty with turquoise sides and dots on their backs. Whenever possible I swerved the cart to ensure running over as many as I could!

Even Quzqo wasn't immune...this little hitch-hiker landed on his dock as we were trotting down the road, and danged if he/she didn't hang on for dear life to a trotting Arabian's tail for a good quarter mile before it started slipping down.

Seconds after I took this photo, Quz swished his tail and the worm went flying!

Less than half a mile away, across a relatively well-traveled paved county road, THIS is what the landscape looked like:


Full, lush green Maples and Beeches. A few of the normal Tent Worms were crawling on the road, looking for more wild cherry trees to kill, but I didn't see any of the Forest Worms...probably they couldn't make it across the paved road, who knows.

The Experts say "be patient" as this infestation will be over with "in a few weeks"...we won't have any trees left, but "be patient". Next year we'll either have a BIGGER infestation, or, what I hope, they'll have eaten themselves into starvation this year and their numbers will be miniscule next year!

Anybody know of a cure for the chronic Heebie Jeebies, cuz I've sure got 'em! Brrrrrrr!