I have a half acre yard with 17 pecan trees plus some others mixed in. Web worms are bad, particularly on the pecans. I see the first webs popping up this week.

The last two years, we had a guy come by and spray with Bt. The first year, it did a great job. Last year, we really needed a second treatment 'cause they were back by fall. But at $17 per tree, it's of questionable value (since it's really just a cosmetic problem).

I've read a little on the tricogramma wasps and the lacewing flies for natural control of the moths/worms but haven't tried them myself, yet. Anyone here used them? What results did you get?

Also, I like "primative technology" stuff. I want to learn to make/throw an atl-atl and one day I'd love to build a trebuchet. I laugh a little at these modern approaches when a little bit of fire does the trick nicely. However, with my 50-75' pecan trees, it'd be a little difficult to get the fire up there where it's needed. Anyone got a good "telescoping rod torch" approach?

That'd get the added bonus of my wife's probably-silent (only because she knows better than to encourage me by trying to discourage me) disapproval and the bonus eye roll!

If you have access to a tractor, get a sprayer that attaches to the PTO and get a malathion solution in 55 gallon drums. That will take care of the web worms.

That's what we had to do in our pecan orchards.

also used that method for spraying cattle.

I had a friend in the tree business and asked her about the webworms. Her comment was leave them alone or cut them out and burn. Spraying in Texas especially Houston was worthless. Houston is one of the few if not only area that has multiple seasons of webworms. the others area only have one season and as such spraying works well. Houston can have up to 4 "seasons" in one year making spraying expensive.

A couple of things here .....

It is not just "cosmetic". The webworms eat the heck out of a tree's leaves. "This year's leaf crop makes next year's pecan crop" is somewhat true.

Bt only lasts a day or 2 (at best). Sunlight kills it.

Yellow jackets are your friends. Take a slingshot or water hose and make holes in the webs. The predators will come. Oh yes, the predators will come.

Absolutely. Find a way to poke some holes in the webs.

I have seen "WOW" batches of webworms before - where it looks like it's a "webworm tree". I've never had it get that bad. 3 or 4 websacks per tree. 5 or 6 on the really large ones.

Our pecans are native, so the nuts don't have enough meat to make the shelling effort worth it. The pecans are just squirrel food, as far as I'm concerned.

I have just the thing to poke holes in the webs... a .177 air rifle. I'll try that. All of the bags are too high for me to cut with my telescoping tree trimmer pole, so that approach is out, and I don't have a tractor/PTO access, either.

We always burned them with rag and pole. Ours were not as tall.

quote:

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Yellow jackets are your friends. Take a slingshot or water hose and make holes in the webs. The predators will come. Oh yes, the predators will come.

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I've done that with beer and 12 guage, shooting holes in all the webs.

One way to make spraying less expensive is to use liquid tide detergent mixed with water (1cup to a gallon of water) for spraying web worms. I have used it for years and it kills the web as quickly as chemical treatment.