[Durham INC] Fw: [TrinityPark] a coordinated cankerworm response?

[M. W. Shiflett - Hotmail]

Northgate Park is not alone.

Many of our fellow neighborhood listserves are buzzing about this.

Alex Johnson (City Forestry) just posted a very good email that contains a 
lot of common sense mixed in with a trained and knowledgeable set of 
agricultural principles as suggested actions (precautions).

Here's a recent posting from the Trinity Park listserve (see below) with 
similar recent experience.

Mike


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cat Warren" <cat_warren at earthlink.net>
To: "Pam Swinney" <pamswinney at nc.rr.com>
Cc: <TrinityPark at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 8:38 AM
Subject: [TrinityPark] a coordinated cankerworm response?


Those interested from Trinity Park and other neighborhoods, please send me 
your tales of tree woe.

I'm less interested now in the disgust/yuck/poop stories, now that they're 
out. I do think the situation may be more serious than the portrayal in the 
News & Observer this a.m. -- as nicely written as the piece was, Josh!

I think that no one thing (e.g., banding, wasps) is going to solve the 
problem, short of arial spraying, and I have my own concerns about that, as 
it is going to affect all caterpillars, not just these overproducing little 
guys. Bt may be considered harmless to other species, but my understanding 
is that any caterpillar or leaf eater that ingests it is toast.

I have caterpillars that I feed with a couple of different plant species 
(including Italian parsley, to my culinary husband's dismay) to encourage 
more butterflies. Yes, I love the poop of tiger swallowtail butterflies in 
my garden.

I do think it's important to note that what we're experiencing on Norton 
Street isn't funny. We are in shock. With about 10 sizable willow oaks on 
our property, some trees are almost half stripped of leaves, and we've had 
thousands of cankerworms simply climbing the sides of our house, happily 
thinking that light green stucco is edible. Our young fruit trees are 
suffering, with about a third of their leaves gone before we realized and 
were able to get powder on them. Our red maples, which are incredibly 
healthy, don't have a single leaf on them. Yes, I expect all will make it 
through this season, but this is the kind of damage that weakens trees 
longterm.

If folks would be willing to send me, rather than the whole list serve (so 
it doesn't get boring and tiresome), some clear reports from around the 
area, I'll compile them so that we might approach first the Trinity Park 
Board, and possibly the City Council to encourage some possible banding 
action for the city trees, if not some targeted spraying. We had federal 
stimulus money for planting the new street trees in Durham; it would be a 
shame to have them weakened by these little varmints.

So the more people who band together the better, I say, the better. (Thanks, 
Julia B-B for that one, and for encouraging this sort of action, rather than 
just whining about poop).

Best,
Cat

1414 Norton St.
_________________


On Mar 27, 2012, at 10:28 PM, Pam Swinney wrote:

>
> We moved to Trinity Park recently from Canker Worm Ground Zero – Southeast 
> Charlotte.  We along with many neighbors banded our many trees in the fall 
> for a number of years. We found that banding did not solve the problem. It 
> is difficult to get everyone to band. Many of us sprayed what we could 
> reach, but due to the number of very large trees it was difficult.  Even 
> with banding and spraying the trees, the canker worms were winning, 
> stripping trees of their leaves.  The situation improved when the city 
> sprayed entire neighborhoods from the air.
>
>
>
> From: TrinityPark at yahoogroups.com [mailto:TrinityPark at yahoogroups.com] On 
> Behalf Of Cat Warren
> Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 9:09 AM
> To: trinityparklistserve Park
> Subject: [TrinityPark] additional information on Trinity Park's plague of 
> inchworms
>
>
>
>   l
>
> Old willow oaks are apparently a very favorite food, which is probably why 
> we're suffering so much in this neighborhood right now.
>
> It was Bt that Charlotte sprayed a couple of years, happily. I've asked 
> Home Depot to carry it -- last night, I went there, and they had NO idea 
> what Bt was, but I think it'll fly off the shelves.
>
> But banding, etc., is going to help more. And timing is apparently 
> critical.
>
> http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/warm-weather-means-canker-worm-problems-start-earl/nLbgF/
>
> http://www.charmeck.org/city/charlotte/epm/Services/Landscaping/Pages/fall%20cankerworm.aspx
>
> http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2009/03/30/632927/its-the-queen-city-vs-the-cankerworm.html
>
> Cat Warren
> 1414 Norton St.
>
>
>
>



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