Controlling Caterpillar Pests with Duct Tape

Attack of the Wiggling Army!

I was coming in from the laundry room well before sunrise one June morning and in what little light there was, I saw something moving down a mesquite tree that shades the patio. It was a squirming army of caterpillars of some sort, moving down the trunk as fast as they could wiggle.

The caterpillar infestation explained the tree's failure to thrive that spring - the bean crop was vanishing, and unlike the other mesquites, it had not put out many new shoots. It wasn't dying, just not thriving, and had never recovered from the usual ratty winter mesquite look. A co-worker and I discussed the easiest way to get the pests under control and came up with a brilliant idea.

The brilliant plan:
* Let the worms get up in the tree from their daytime hiding place in the pebbles mulch.
* Band the trunk with an adhesive material late that night.
* Worms would get stuck on the adhesive on their way down at dawn.
* Mockingbirds would arrive at daylight and eat the worms for breakfast.
* The tree would be saved.

What actually happened with the brilliant plan:
* The worms went up the tree.
* I banded the trunk with duct tape, wrapped sticky side out in about a 6-inch band.
* The herd of worms trying to descend the tree at dawn was so big that they were pushing each other off the trunk, many of them never reaching the adhesive. Others reached the tape, were repelled by the sticky feel of it, went back up the tree and hurled themselves off the trunk or branches in desperation as dawn approached. It was raining caterpillars.
* When daylight arrived, birds started to dine on the dozen or so worms that did get stuck on the tape.
* My cat discovered the buffet. He sat in the tree, above the tempting wiggly worms, waiting for the birds to get close enough to catch.
* Not only was the tree not saved, a few birds became catfood.