What do I get to spray to kill Bag Worms?
Question:They are like 4-5 large bags of worms in my trees and they are going to kill them any suggestions on what to spray them with?
Answers:
Are you talking about a nest of caterpillars or a single cocooned insect? If it is a nest, and you can reach the caterpillars, try burning them with an aim flame lighter. That's what my dad does. It might cause some blackening on the tree limb, but if done right you can rid yourself of the varmints without spending a fortune on chemicals.
If it's the single worm cocoon or you just want chemicals, Sevin is a good non-commercial license chemical. You can spray them with insecticide but the web can prevent the chemical from coming into contact with some of the worms. And if not done properly, like letting it drift all over the tree, you can kill beneficial insects that might feed on the worms. Good luck!
Any genral purpose insecticide will do (Malathion, Sevin, etc.) Get a small bottle of concentrate, mix it in your pump-up garden sprayer in the proper proportion, then soak the webs.
Control Measures
Option 1-Cultural Control-Mechanical Hand Picking If the bags are few in number and easily reached they may be picked off the plant and squashed.
Option 2-Biological Control-Use the Bacterial Spray Bt The bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), is effective against bagworms if it is used against young larvae. Applications should be made at the end of June after all the eggs have hatched and the larvae are through ballooning.
Option 3-Chemical Control-Insecticide Sprays Stomach insecticides are very useful for control of bagworms. Products registered for bagworm control are: acephate (Orthene), bendiocarb (Ficam, Turcam)(*), bifenthrin (Talstar), carbaryl (Sevin), chlorpyrifos (Dursban), cyfluthrin (Tempo)(*), diazinon, dimethoate (Cygon), fluvalinate (Mavrik)(*), malathion, nicotine sulfate, pyrethrum, permethrin (Pounce)(*), rotenone and trichlorfon (Dylox, Proxol)(*).
Option 4-Chemical Control-Timed Sprays Using Degree-Day Emergence Using a base temperature of 14.4 degrees C (57.9 degrees F) the median first emergence is 380 DD base 14.4 degrees C (716 DD degrees F) and the median last emergence is 572 DD base 14.4 degrees C (1062 DD degrees F). Allow for an extra week of ballooning after the last emergence mark has been reached before applying Bt or an insecticide. A less precise degree-day model uses a 50 degrees F base which calculates last emergence around 900 DD units.
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