Help! Cacoons killing my Leyland Cypress

Robin Barnhart · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 5

I have a huge cypress (close to 20 ft. tall) in my front yard that I noticed had a lot of cacoons in it a few weeks ago. This tree was absolutely beautiful. I had not paid attention and was working outside yesterday and the front of the tree looks almost like it is dead. The limbs, leaves? are brown and alot of the needles (the leyland doesn't really have needles) are on the ground. This seemed to happen so fast. How do I get rid of the worms? There are thousands of bags hanging from the tree. Am I going to loose this tree? I planted it about 9 years ago.

Thank you. Robin

Dchall_San_Antonio · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 2011 Location: San Antonio,TEXAS

The greatest natural enemy to caterpillars are paper wasps. I hardly have any this year, so I'm relying on the second greatest natural enemy, bacillus thurengiensis (sp???). You can get "BT" to spray on them at most any garden store including Wal-Mart. BT is a disease to the caterpillars but not to birds, pets, or fish.

Will you lose the tree? I've seen a few trees wiped out in a single attack. But I've seen way more trees survive. Too bad you didn't think to act when you first saw the worms. Now that you have the experience, painful as it was, you'll ALWAYS remember what those worms look like.

Robin Barnhart · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 5

Thank you. I will try to get some BT today. I had seen cacoons on the tree in previous years but they never seem to do much. I would pull some of them off. I was surprised by the number of them this year and wondered if I should do something. I actually wondered if they might be benefical in some way. Shows what I know!

Should I try to fertilize or anything?

Robin