How Do I Get Rid of Fall Webworms

Fall Webworms

This year has been a rough year for gardeners trying to control fall webworms. I finally have control over most of the webworms in my garden and I want to give you advice on my experience with getting rid of them- and I didn’t have to use any chemicals. I have a pollinator garden and prefer to keep all chemicals out of my yard. Having a pollinator garden means that I include plants that are specifically for the bees, butterflies, and any other creature that makes its way into my garden. Keep reading to see what I did to get rid of the Fall Webworms.

What Are Fall Webworms?

First, I would like to point out the name Fall Webworm. It is not fall at the time I am writing this- it is early summer and the name fall webworm sounds like the worms will be out and about during the fall season. Obviously, this is not totally true.

These moths can lay their eggs starting in the summer and go into the fall season. The webworm spends its pupal stage overwintering in a silken cocoon in the soil, tree bark, or the leaf litter in the area. The adult moths will emerge around the time that their host plants start to develop its leaves in the spring. The moths will begin to mate with the female laying her eggs soon afterwards. You can see the eggs laid in egg masses on the undersides of leaves.

Soon, the caterpillars will hatch and immediately begin feeding on the leaves. The caterpillars will eat ferociously. As the caterpillars grow bigger they will molt, or shed their skins. They will molt 11 times while they eat and grow bigger.

Fall Webworm Identification

The caterpillars will grow as big as 1 inch long. The fall webworm caterpillars have yellowish to greenish bodies, additionally, some of the webworms bodies have been seen as beige in color. They will have 2 sets of small black dots going down the backs of their bodies. They can have either black or reddish heads. In addition, the worms have white hairs on them. These hairs are not venomous. But, they have been known to irritate some people that have sensitive skin.

The moths are actually a brilliant white moth with dark brownish gray spots on the wings. Its body is white and hairy with short antenna. It has a wingspan of 1.4-1.8 inches.

Destruction

Fall webworms can be pretty destructive. However, most of the destruction is short lived. The caterpillars can defoliate an entire tree. Nevertheless, most plants will regrow the foliage fairly quickly.

How many generations of fall webworm can we get in one year?

Most years, depending on where you live, there will be 2-3 generations of fall webworms in one year. If you live further south, you may end up getting up to 4 generations of fall webworms in one year. If you live up north, you may only get one or two generations in one year (lucky for you). It is generally noted that the last generation of caterpillars is the most destructive.

What Plants Do Fall Webworms Like The Most?

Fall Webworms do have a list of plants that they love to eat. Many of the plants that they enjoy eating at the larval stage are trees. However, this year their numbers were so crazy that I saw them on plants that I had never seen them on before. There are around some 80 different species of plants that the caterpillars will eat. Here is my short list of plants they love to devour (the list of plants that they eat is quite long).

• Pecans
• Mulberry
• Oaks (this year they did not eat my Oak trees-they ate everything else)
• Willows
• Hickory
• Redbud (this is another plant they did not eat this year)
• Apple
• Peach
• Ash
• Walnut
• Persimmon

These are the plants that they really devoured this year on my property:

• Azaleas
• Roses
• Coral Honeysuckle & my Hardy Honeysuckle
• Mint- I have several and they enjoyed all of them
• Pepper plants
• Lantana
• Rosemary
• Tomatoes- the fruit, not the plant itself
• Peaches- I know I mentioned it in the list above, but they really wanted to eat the foliage of the peach tree until I got aggressive in getting them off
• Plumeria-this one really surprised me
• Butterfly Vine- Mascagnia macroptera
• Ficus- I have a plant on my porch that they started to enjoy before I got them off
• Yaupon
• Parsley
• Dill

How Do I Get Rid Of Fall Webworms Organically?

This year we had fall webworms in large numbers. One of the reasons that they can be so prolific is because they create a web around the foliage which protects them while they eat. Their natural predators are unable to penetrate through the webbing on their own.

I know most people want to just go out and buy a chemical spray and get rid of the webworms. I have a pollinator garden, and children, and dogs that spend a considerable amount of time on the property. Because of this, I work as hard as I can to not use any chemicals that I know will be harmful to all the things I love.

Easy Way Rid Webworms- Hand Picking

So, what do I do? It is not hard to get rid of fall webworms- it is a little time consuming and takes some effort. Here is what I did in this order:

1. I walked around with a stick or long broom handle and poked holes in the webbing- everywhere. This allows the webworms natural predators to get in and start to eat them. They will rebuild the webbing fairly quickly so, you may need to do this a few times.
2. I began to hand pick them off of the plants I could reach. If they were high in the trees I would use my water hose on a strong blast and spray them out of the trees. I did this to my coral honeysuckle and my peach tree. I then picked them off of the tree trunk when they were trying to get back on the plants.
3. After I picked them off the plants I put them in a bucket of soapy water. I know it is cruel to kill them that way but they were eating my plants and I wanted to save the plants. Every couple of days I had to dump out my water and start with fresh batch of soapy water.
4. Get a black light flashlight and look for the worms at night. Fall webworms glow under the black light making it easy to see where they are. I had a worm picking party a couple of nights.

That was all I did. Not hard- just a little time consuming. It did take me about 5 days of constant picking to fully get rid of them. And I didn’t have to use any chemicals. I did wear gloves because I don’t really like touching them. Some did end up crawling up my arm. Which does freak anyone out the first time it happens. But, I got used to it.

Fall Webworms Natural Predators

Fall Webworms do have a few natural predators:

• Tachinid Fly
• Wasps
• Birds
• Assassin Bug
• Lizards- I observed many lizards trying to feast on the worms as I was picking the worms off the plants. I did leave a few of them so they could get an easy meal.

The best way to help their predators is by breaking open their webs. This allows the predators to go in there and eat them.

Pests can be hard to control sometimes. In spite of that, it is good practice to try an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) approach. If the numbers of fall webworm were not so out of control I would have left them alone, like I normally do. It really is using the best approach that helps the environment and the world around us.