Battle of the bagworms

the bagworm is in the center of the photo in it's cocoon.

I have a fight on my hands in the flower garden ~ bag worms.  Those are the bugs that make a cocoon and work their way over the plant devouring everything in it's path.  And what are they eating?  My knockout rose bushes!  Nothing is supposed to bother those!  Over weekend I picked off hundreds which my boys promptly burned in a old coffee can with gasoline and a match.  A special kind of 4th of July fire, I guess.  

I had to trim back one rosebush to about half it's size.  The poor thing was devoured.  Now I have found them on the Russian Sage and the Wisteria too.  I hope it doesn't move to the Sally Holmes Roses because they are just beautiful right now.  I must stop them before they get there.


I have read on forums about treating with insecticide that only kills bagworms and not beneficial bugs and bees but this treatment takes a year.  Seriously, I don't have a year.  I won't have a garden by then.  The weeks of 100 degree temps and chronic drought must have morphed these into munching monsters because they are multiplying and moving fast.  If anyone knows how to get rid of them with anything short of nerve gas, please let me know.  Otherwise, this battle is gonna get ugly.

Comments

  1. Sorry about that...nothing like this kind of a problem to take the fun out of raising pretty things!

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  2. ooh, yowch. that's rough. (i bet your boys had a blast playing 'flame-thrower' with them, tho!)

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  3. 2 c water + 1 tsp Eucalyptus Oil + 1/2 tsp dishwashing soap is supposed to be a bug repellant you can spray on your plants. I don't know if that might work out for you.

    Good Luck -- the bugs have been terrible by us too :( I am trying to combat the horse flys - my horses are MISERABLE.

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  4. Sorry I don't have any helpful tips, but just sympathy.... it's so frustrating when lovingly grown plants are consumed by BUGS. Yuck! Hope the problem doesn't get any worse x

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  5. Oh gosh - sounds serious. I wish I could help. Dang!

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  6. ohh...no. i've just seen mountain man burning them. i can ask if there's something he recommends!

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  7. Oh no! I've had these, and they are horrible! They literally destroyed my spruce trees and all my shrubbery. I hand picked what seemed like buckets of them and stomped them. (yuck, I know!) I used Ortho Sevin. This seemed to help some. I hope you can get rid of them before they do more damage to your gardens :(

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  8. I hope you get rid of the bagworms soon...I can't believe you have such an infestation. Is it because of the weeks of 100+ degree temps?

    P.S. I found your site weeks ago when googling for "egg baskets"..isn't that something? We got hens a few months ago after mising them from when we lived out in the country. We left our cool egg basket with the house when we moved into town almost 6 years ago. Was pleased to find another Okie blogger!

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  9. Oh Kim what a shame! I'm sorry but I don't know what else you can do about them. I had some in one tree last year but so far I haven't seen them again however I haven't really looked either. Good luck with your Sally Holmes! Please keep us posted on how things go...I'm hoping you'll figure out a good way of getting rid of them. Take care.
    Maura

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  10. We are fighting them off too. I haven't seen
    any on my Knockouts yet. In our big tree.

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  11. We have them here, but only occasionally and in the tallest of trees. Try visiting a local nursery...they'll know what's best for your area and how to handle them. Wishing you luck! It must be the day for disappointments...my new apple tree, loaded with fruit and just about ready for pies, sauces,& cobblers, was discovered broken in half this morning; with all the apples gone. What's a girl to do? -Mary

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  12. I haven't had any here and have never seen them on roses. We used to pick them off by hand from shrubs at our last place. I think that sprays aren't much help because the worms do not get it on thm, just the bag. good luck. I can understand how frustrating and discouraged it would be with that much of an infestation.

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  13. Last year my husband used a blow torch to burn them right on the trees (taking care not to torch the trees along with them). It worked great. This year the trees look healthy and those horrible bugs haven't come back.

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