I believe these are called tent caterpillars but beyond that I can't find any info about species that occur in the UK. There is an avenue of trees in Jesus Green which is smothered in these tents. I've found a map of Jesus Green trees (all hail the internet) and they are apparently 'Bird Cherries' - very impressive in bloom - I've a photo I'll dig out. This does, however, add fuel to the council's argument that you shouldn't plant lots of the same species together. Anybody have any other info on these? I'd be really interested to know what they'll turn into. Thanks in anticipation!
Wow, with that many caterpillars I don't hold out much hope for the foliage on the trees, I should think they could strip the tree pretty quickly. Do keep us posted!!
@kimmiesue@snowy@remcogreutink@cindy@june@mole Thanks for all your comments - I should have said that the web is incredibly strong (maybe they're silk moths!!) - and I am worried about the trees too - each has dozens of these but many of them seem to have hatched and left and I didn't see lots of free caterpillars munching away so maybe they move off somewhere.
Had to make this photo large to see closer & there are such a lot of caterpillars in that sort of sac, I have never seen any thing like that before! Won't do the trees any good at all ! Amazing photo & so interesting too.
Creepy. These look like what I know as web worms. You can google it and see if maybe that's what they are. There is a difference between tent caterpillars and web worms. I'm thinking that tent caterpillars are a bit more destructive.
Hmm, I'd say that this is the work of bird cherry moth ermine caterpillars...
I'd like to pretend I'm a world expert on caterpillars but I have to confess there was an article about this in the Cambridge News today!
@helenmoss I was VERY impressed for a minute there!! Well there you go - I'm one step ahead of the News!! Although to be fair I didn't know what they were... Fancy being so specific to that species of tree - I'm off to look it up online!! Do you think they want to buy a photo ;0)
@helenmoss Oh my word I've looked it up - I need to go back and take some more pics!! I have seen a photo on the internet when I was first looking them up and it was a bike completely covered in web - but the trees just had the tents on them on Tuesday.
May 19th, 2011
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I'd like to pretend I'm a world expert on caterpillars but I have to confess there was an article about this in the Cambridge News today!