It is amazing what a week of warm weather and an inch of natural rain can change things so drastically. We had some rain on Friday and the next day most of the trees that were just budded, all of a sudden had leaves.
Last year, we had an invasion of Cankerworms. Small green inchworms, which seem to eat 1000 times their body weight per day. Due to a mild winter last year, we were seriously invaded. When you stood outside, and it was quiet, you could actually hear their droppings hitting the dry leaves under the trees like sand being sprinkled. They completely defoliated some of our trees and bushes, seeming to favor Lilac and Japanese maples of course.
Well, yesterday I saw my first Cankerworm of the year. Hopefully there will be only a handful, like in most years. We also have been visited by the dreaded Tent caterpillar. They have set up shop in two of our trees. I got the starts of one tent out of the flowering crabapple, and I got 3 tents out of the wild cherry tree. But 2 of the tents were too high to get to. Well in just a couple of days, not only did the remaining caterpillars quadruple in size, but they have managed to completely defoliate whole sections of the tree. The U.S. government should have used these instead of agent orange. At least these won't give anyone cancer.
