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This is Archive 2 It comes after Archive 1 and starts November 10 2010 up to November 6 2017 Other choices at this time are Home, Archive 1, and Archive 2
December 12, 2017 Tuesday
Don’t be in too much of a hurry to get the traps up. I see city traps with tanglefoot full of leaves already. In much of Charlotte, the trees still have lots of leaves. There are more details on the cankerworm page. The cold front should arrive tomorrow and that has delayed the real cold that we need to bring them out to crawl up the trunk. more on cankerworms
December 10, 2017 Sunday
The temperature only dropped to 28 last night; I expected 26. I started thinking about the cold weather coming and all the other things I needed to do this Christmas Season. About 3:00 Am after a good sleep I woke up and realized I had not protected several outside faucets. One in the back yard is a copper pipe that stands up from the ground about 24 inches. If it freezes and burst, it is a pain to fix. Fortunately, I know a little about soldering copper, and if I were to not take care of this I know I would have a broken pipe.
At the same time I have 3 hoses in the front and back yard each of which has a spray nozzle. If they are drained they are not affected by the cold, but if there is water inside them they will break. I gathered the faucets up also and went back to bed and slept
December 6, 2017
The leaves are flying from the trees, and with the coming cold front and wind, I think most of the trees will be rid of their leaves soon. If you are doing the banding yourself you should put the bands up now, but do not put Tanglefoot or other sticky material on the band. (see more on banding).
When I used to rake my yard, I realized that it would take about 100 leaf bags to clean up all the leaves. It did not matter if I raked leaves once a week during the leaf falling time, or if I raked once a month, or waited until the end of the season, it always took about 100 bags. I have fewer willow oaks now, but my neighbors might not. All of these leaves came from one yard.
Sixty Three ( 63) Bags of leaves from one residential yard on QRW.
December 2, 2017 Saturday
It will several more days before we see female cankerworms start climbing the trees. The 10 day
forecase for Charlotte shows us getting into the 25 and 28 degree range by Saturday December 9th. Shortly after that I would expect to see some activity. There are certain areas around Charlotte that are not as affected by the heat of the city, and they might experience colder temperatures sooner than we do. I have several people who report when they see cankerworm activity and that is a big help to all of us. I still see lots of trees loaded with leaves.
Big Willow Oak
I photographed this large willow yesterday (Friday Dec first), and as you can see there are many leaves to still fall. At the same time a light wind was blowing leaves out of the trees, and we are expecting rain soon. If that is the the case then certainly on large trees the leaves will fall, and it would be ok to put up traps I is ok to put the band on the tree now, but do not put the sticky material on until we 3 good cold days.
Personally I would wait a few days to put Tanglefoot on because I always put a very thin 1/2 inch band on my lone large tree and will not put up the remaining tanglefoot until I see modest activity.
I also recognize that lots of people hire tree companies to put up the Bug Barrier trap and the way it is made to shield the glue this trap can be put up earlier than the traditional Tanglefoot trap. There are other reasons I don't care for the Bug Barrier trap and you can read about that here.
November 3, 2017 Thursday Thanksgiving Day
It is close to the cankerworm migration up the trees. I read an article a couple of days ago in the Charlotte Observer that this week and next were the appropriate time to band trees for cankerworm.
I take issue with that because the willow oaks are loaded with leaves. We need a good rain, and wind to rid the trees of leaves. Back when cankerworms first became a problem after Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the timing for putting up cankerworm traps was about Thanksgiving. Each year it seems to start later and now is later in December. See this link
It takes a good Hard Freeze to get the cankerworms crawling. What that means is that it needs to be 27 degrees F. or cooler for about 3 days in a row to get the female canker worms moving.
If you band too soon you will have a lot of leaves captured in the Tanglefoot. If you use other products that protect the sticky stuff you are probably ok. The wind will tend to blow leaves under the Bug Barrier trap. Actually the other day I heard about 6 leaf blowers all making tremendous noise at the same time. There were 3 going two houses down from me and a like number up the street. I had to put on a head phone like ear protectors just to work in the yard.
Leaf blowers are really bad about blowing up leaves on to the cankerworm traps. It might be the operator who is careless, but in general if you put up a trap too early, the leaf blowers will ruin the trap.
Every year I watch the city band trees on the median of Queens Road West. A day or so later, the city or their contractor comes by and blows up so many leaves that the traps are covered. I will post a photo here later.
- November 18, 2017 Saturday
I am up and running at last. Just in time for the fall cankerworms it appears. Presently I am in Rochester New York. It is amazing how different the trees are here. It is especially obvious as we drive along the highway. I have been interested in the oak trees. They are in the process of turning from their fall colors to a blend of just brown. Conspicuously, the white oak are just brown, A few Scarlet oaks have retained their fall color. The Scarlet oak is one we don’t often see in the Charlotte area. Mostly we have willow oaks, white oaks, some Northern red oaks, water oaks, Southern Red oak ( this one’s leaf looks like a candle flame). Lesser seen are the chestnut oak and some mossy cup oaks that probably came from seeds brought down by a Dr. Tilley a dentist I think in about the 1930’s. There are some of these original trees on 7th Street, and I went by and got some great examples of their acorns. Photo here....soon. The name is Querscus macrocarpa which means large cap. I planted several of these over the years and one is on the property at Lake Norman Yacht Club. It is now about 50 feet tall and producing acorns for the past 10 yearsor so. More on acorns later.
- November 14, 2017 Tuesday (viewing on inspiron shows up on web most old potos on board . Still have to merge text from dec 6th to end of the year. Recover all photos and copy to Assets.
- November 06, 2017 Monday
In case you landed here today, notice that it is exactly 11 months since I have been able to update this site. It is far from done, but I will explain later.
As you can see there is an overlap here. The data below is information I saved. The total number of canerworoms for the
February 22,2017
As of February 17th, I have not seen any more female cankerworms. I do have some eggs on the trap where the male cankerworms were attracted to the stuck females. We can expect these eggs and the eggs up in the trees to hatch in late March. Keep your eyes opened and you will see small green worms on the traps. Ten days later you should see some defoliation.
February 17, 2017 Friday 3cw in TF today Total 248cw post later
February 16, 2017 Thursday 3cw in TF today Total 245cw post later
February 15, 2017 Wednesday 2cw in TF today Total 242cw post later
February 14, 2017 Tuesday 3cw in TF today Total 240cw post later
February 13, 2017 Monday 3cw in TF today Total 237cw post later
February 12, 2017 Sunday 4cw in TF today Total 234cw post later
February 11, 2017 Saturday 8cw in TF today Total 227cw post later
February 10, 2017 Friday 4cw in TF today Total 219cw
February 9, 2017 Thrusday 3cw in TF today Total 215cw
February 8, 2017 Wednesday 4cw in TF today Total 208cw
February 7, 2017 Tuesday 3cw in TF today Total 204cw
February 6, 2017 Monday 14cw in TF today Total 201cw
This was a surprise to me.
February 5, 2017 Sunday 5cw in TF today Total 187cw
Go down and look at the Feb 3 comparison from total count for four months. Note that this year almost to the end of the cankerworm migration I have counted 187 cws and in 2006 there were 5941 cankerworms trapped. There will be a few more cws added in the remainder of the month, but not many. That is almost 32 times more cws in 2006 than in 2017.
February 4, 2017 Saturday 3cw in TF today Total 182cw
Again all insects were from the shady side of the tree. It also is pretty cold, below freezing.
February 3, 2017 Friday 4cw in TF today Total 179cw
I did not it add to my message yesterday but today did go back through my records to 2006 which was the most cankerworms I counted. Here is the breakdown....
November 2006 = 26 female cankerworms trapped
December 2006 = 1987
January 2006 = 3901
February 2006 = 27
Total = 5941
February 2, 2017 Thursday 00cw in TF today Total 175cw
I will write more about this later today. I want to make some comparisons to previous years. I find what we have seen this year in terms of the overall migration to be very abnormal.
Today with 175 total cankerworms, how does this compare with earlier seasons. In 2016 in early February, I had trapped
February 1, 2017 Wednesday 4cw in TF today Total 175cw
Early February last year (2016) we had over 700 cankerworms on the same tree and trap. in early February of 2015 the total of cankerworms trapped was
January 31, 2017 Tuesday 7cw in TF today Total 171cw
Only 7 cankerworms today, that is a surprise. On the last of January in
January 30, 2017 Wednesday 20cw in TF today Total 164cw
II have not checked my trap since January 25th. I expected that there would be about 30 cankerworms a day. The actual count was 20 cws and 150 would have been the number if my guess had been correct. I also have noticed that the cankerworms have been coming up from the back side of the tree in this case, the shady side of the tree. In the past that has been an indication that the migration was slowing down.
January 25, 2017 Wednesday 32cw in TF today Total 144cw
This is beginning to look normal but arrival of female cankerworms about a month late. I am getting reports that the cws are out everywhere.
January 24, 2017 Tuesday 34cw in TF today Total 112 cw
January 23, 2017 Monday 2cw in TF today Total 78 cw
January 22, 2017 Sunday 4cw in TF today Total 76 cw
Heavy rain last night My rain gauge which is glass froze and broke a week ago. I was a little late gluing it back together last night. It had been raining several hours when I replaced it and it registered 3.5 inches of rain early this morning.
January 21, 2017 Saturday 9cw in TF today Total 72 cw
Finally another normal day for cankerworm movement. I counted 9 female cankerworms on the trap today. I looked back over some historical figures. In past years as the migration started, we would see days like this: 3,5,2,4,6,8 and then a few days up to 24. One year on Christmas day, there were 100 cankerworms captured. A few trees had 5000, to 8,000 insects for the entire season read more
January 20, 2017 Friday 13cw in TF today Total 63 cw
It rained a little bit last night but not enough to wet the bark and I trapped 13 female cankerworms. This seems to be more toward normal movement. Still we have seen a very late start to the cankerwom migration.
Also of interest, is that most of the city trees I have seen are showing few cankerworms. I suspect that in certain parts of the town the numbers will much larger.
January 19, 2017 Thursday 8cw in TF today Total 50 cw
Well, finally what I would consider a normal day. Seeing 8 female cankerworms on the trap was a good sign. Since I know they are moving in other parts of the city, I think we will see more favorable days ahead.
January 18, 2017 Wednesday 0cw in TF today Total 42 cw
Today there were no cankerworms on the trunk of my tree which surprised me since I thought they were moving upward on Tuesday the 17th. I also checked the two street trees in front of my home and there were no cws on the first street tree and possibly one on the second tree. I mashed it so there would be no carryover from today.
January 17, 2017 Tuesday 4cw in TF today Total 42 cw
January 16, 2017 Monday 0cw in TF today Total 38 cw This year by January 17th (2016 / 2017 we had caught 38 female cankerworms
Last year 2015 / 2016 at this time, (January 17, 2015) I had trapped 655 cws.
In 2015/ 2016 the number of female cankerworms that were trapped were cws
January 16, 2017 Monday 0cw in TF today Total 38 cw
At least today I have found that some other parts of the county are having a good bit of cankerworm activity. The Highland Creek area as well as Concord are having a good bit of activity. Concord has been pretty bad for several years. Mint Hill was spotty last year and I don’t know how that is doing this season.
January 15, 2017 Sunday 0cw in TF today Total 38 cw
No cankerworms today. I am mistified.
January 14, 2017 Saturday 0cw in TF today Total 38 cw
No Cankerworms today
January 13, 2017 Friday 2cw in TF today Total 38
Small number of cankerworms today and pretty warm too
January 12, 2017 Thursday 6cw in TF today Total 36 cw
I have had a number of cankerworms get through the Red & Tacky so I will stop separating the two types of sticky material. Note that my total of 36 is not much different from the count I made on another large willow oak across the street yesterday. I counted approximately 40 because it was hard to see under the trap.
January 11, 2017 Wednesday 7cw in TF today, 2cw in RT Total 30 cw
The ice and snow are mostly gone, and there are cankerworms on the trap. I did not have time to count them, but will do so later this morning.
I attended the CIA (Charlotte Arborist Association) meeting last night and the general consensuses is that the cankerworms either have not started en mass yet except in a few isolated cases. One person mentioned that a trap directly across the street from me in an individual’s yard was loaded with female cankerwormsl I hustled across the street about 8:00 and did count approximately 40 female cankerworms in the trap. This was a Bug Barrier trap, and it is hard to count the numbers because they are on the inside of the trap and hard to see.
Why the difference from the norm? I really don’t have the answer, but this is a healthy willow oak that is growing in a bed of English Ivy. Maybe the ivy insulates the ground from freezing and the worms started moving sooner that those trees that are on bare soil more or less void of any mulch.
I will explore this later.
January 10, 2017 Tuesday 2cw in TF today, 1cw in RT Total 21 cw
January 9, 2017 Monday 0cw in TF today, 0cw in RT Total 18 cw
Same as yesterday with ice and snow. It is clearing from the grass.
January 8, 2017 Sunday 0 cw in TF today, 0cw in RT Total 18 cw
Snow and Ice
January 7, 2017 cw in TF today, 0cw in RT Total 18 cw
January 6, 2017 6cw in TF today, 1cw in RT Total 18 cw
Today it is in low 30 €™s and not suposed to get much warmer. This has been a strange seson, and I have had several comments about how late the season is this year.
Below is an email I got from Jeff Peppard. Jeff was the one who used the Red & Tacky (RT an abbreviation I plan to use more in the future).
Jack,
I haven't seen any females as of 01-05-17 after thousands last year. Could we possibly have effected the life cycle or just not cold enough this year yet.
Also, I explained last year that the females are too weak to get through the "red n tacky" grease. They don't get stuck like Tanglefoot. They merely get the grease on their legs and fall to the ground. I literally had thousands on my oak fall last year.
Strange season so far, but I'll hunt them buggers down.
Thanks,
Jeff Peppard
January 5, 2017 2cw in TF today, 1cw in RT Total cw 11
I realize that I will need to put up more Red & Tacky because it is pretty thin.
January 4, 2017 2 cw today Total 8 cw
January 3, 2017 0 cw today Total 6 cw
cankerworm bu 2We had 2 inches of rain here last night and the cankerworms did not care to come out and climb the trees.
I did discover some insects that I have seen many times. They are colored exactly the same as the lichen on the tree trunk. I looked them up and that is what the two photos below are. It turns out the a Lacewing larvae. The cover them selves with dried bits and pieces of the
lichen for camouflage. The move about and search for small insects like aphids etc. The two links below are very informative and have some excellent photos plus a lot more detail than I have provided.http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2010/11/lacewing-uses-lichen-camouflage.html
http://www.zenthroughalens.com/search?q=lichen
Blog above identifies this as a camofloged lacewing larvae.
January 2, 2017 5 cw today Total 6 cw
It might seem strange that there have only been six cankerworms so far this year. I do not know why. There is speculation that it might be to the severe drought that we had during the summer of 2016. The official record for Charlotte was 40 days without rain, but at my home I went for another 20. The storm that brought rain to parts of Charlotte after 40 days just happen to skirt my home.
It would be logical to assume that the dryness killed lots of cankerworms that breed in the ground, but I don €™t think that has anything to do with the late start. Here is why, I happen to have an irrigation system for my yard and I also try to be conservative with water for the grass but I did keep things going through the drought and the cankerworms are just as slow in my yard as they are on the street trees in front of my house.
January 1, 2017 0 cw Total 1 cw
Lots of rain last night and the bugs don €™t like rain or snow.
December 31, 2017 1 cw Total 1 cw
Even though there was some rain, one cankerworm made it up to the Red & Tacky.
December 30, 2016 Friday
Finally the cankerworms are moving. I saw two on my trap this morning. Took some photos Thursday and will post more information later today. Those two trees had none trapped the next morning and I suspect they fell off the tar paper. A cold front came through and there was a great deal of wind.
December 26, 2016 Monday
There are two street trees both willow oaks about 30 inches in diameter. There was one female cankerworm on one tree and none on the second tree. I expected more.
December 23, 2016 Friday
Typically I band and count one tree in my yard. I used a large willow oak out front until we had it removed in 2013. The tree succumbed to Anonotus dayaedeus the Cinnamon colored mushroom that you will see in our willow oaks in the fall and early winter around Charlotte.
This year I am starting off looking at two street trees because I have not around to applying both Red & Tacky and Tanglefoot to the one large willow oak in my back yard. I am anxious to see how the Red & Tacky responds since it will be the lower band and hopefully catch all the cankerworms before they reach the Tanglefoot.
The two street trees have only one cw insect (CW or cw means Cankerworm) between the two of them. I mashed it today and will continue to do that until I my tap finished.
December 22, 2016
First wingless female cankerworm seen climbing up tarpaper getting ready to enter Red and Tacky band. For some reason it never made it as I looked to see. Don €™t know why it fell off.
December 20, 2016
Last year our first cankerworm was on my willow oak on December 5, 2015. Here we are almost to Christmas and last year on the 20th (today also the 20th of December) there were 31 female cankerworms trapped and on Christmas day there were approximately 70 cankerworms trapped. In looking back I must have been out of town on Christmas day or just forgot to count, but on the 26th of December there were 76 cankerworms. We are therefore almost a month late getting started.
As I recall that I was annoyed because the city contractor had just banded all the street trees in the median in from of my home which means there was sticky stuff all over the bands. Then the city landscaping department or possibly a contracted company came out and blew up all the leaves. Many of which landed on the trap and were captured by the Tanglefoot or Catch Master material where the available choices last year because the Tanglefoot company went out of business and a number of other materials were used on the traps. IMO none worked very well.
It would seem that the coordination of putting sticky stuff on the traps and blowing up all the leaves could be coordinated better,
December 17, 2016
Still no sign of cankerworm here. Today there is really bad weather north of Charlotte and there was band of cold on the other side of the mountains, all moving this way. Rain is projected here and above freezing temps so after the main weather moves on we could easily have the cankerworms moving up the trees. It usually takes about three days of good cold weather down to 27 degrees or colder to make them move. They won €™t start crawling in the rain of after a snow.
I checked in Blackhawk hardware store which does a good bit of business selling products to make cankerworm traps. Here are some prices. Plastic wrap similar to Saran wrap= $17.00 for 1000 ft.
Tanglefoot =$15.00 for 1 lb tub.
Tarpaper =$25.00 for 144 feet
Red & Sticky =$5.00 for 1 lb tube (from Walmart)
I use rolled up newpaper rather than plumbing insulation. It seems to work just as well.
I got the Red & Sticky in a tube to be put in a grease gun which might not work very well. I was not able to get a tub, but will let you know when I apply the Red and Sticky.
I have been delayed getting my trap up, but there are two city willow oaks out front that the city bands so I have been checking them.
I have not gotten around to comparing the cost to using the various products, so if someone wants to do that, lets use a 36 inch diameter tree measuring at DBH (diameter at breast hight) The plastic wrap will be much less expensive than tarpaper and also goes on easier and in less time.
I plan to put two bands on my tree and see which which of the two types (Tanglefoot or Red & Tacky) works better on trapping insects. I will be using the tarpaper mainly because it is a little neater, although I think the plastic can be purchased in black. Mine is greenish.
December 9, 2016
Looks like the wind and cold had knocked most of the leaves out of the trees. The willow oaks are the trees mostly affected and around me and in my yard they have lost 98 percent of their leaves.
I checked the current price of Red & Sticky. This is a type of axle grease and readily available from Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart. It appears to most available in a heavy paper tube that goes in a grease gun. A 14 ounce tube cost between $4.98 to $5.58 at the present time. That comes out to $0.36 an ounce. You can also get a one pound tub for $11.88. 11,88 / 16 ounces = $0.74. One would think the Tub would be less expensive because of the volume.
December 7, 2016
Also, Since I am on the subject of Sticky Stuff to capture cankerworms. Here is some more information. Blackhawk Hardware sells a one pound container of Tanglefoot this year for $14.99 and a 5 pound tub for $69.99.
Last year Blackhawk sold Treekote Treebanding gum which worked ok but when it got hot it ran off the band and down on the trunk. Blackhawk spokesman told me that if you had some Treekote left over you could mix the Treekote with the Tanglefoot which would extend the use. If you have ever tried to stir Tanglefoot it €™s mighty stiff and I suspect messy. I would give that some second thoughts.
What I have seen is that the sunny side of the tree will definitely heat up melt the tanglefoot. In
fact some of it will be absorbed into the tar paper if you are using that. am down to one large willow oak to band (had 7 or so 44 years ago when we moved into our home). I prefer to use black tar paper simply because it is neater and I can record the number of insects more easily. I usually count the insects daily.
If you have a number of trees to band, then the Saran like plastic wrap is easier and faster to use.
One last note I plan to use a Tanglefoot band on the trunk and below it place another band with Red & Tacky wheel bearing grease.
December 7, 2016
Last year we could not get Tanglefoot. I had some correspondence from several people who experimented with Red & Tacky wheel bearing grease. Read the paragraph from directly below from last year in January.
January 6, 2016 Wednesday ( 27 cw) Total = 398 cw
Most important news today is that Blackhawk Hardware has gotten a shipment of TREEKOTE TREEBANDING GUM. They have it in two sizes a 15 oz container for $15.99 and a 8 lb tub $89.99.
Now what you need to do is read about the Red N Tacky that we have described below. Cathy Hasty sent me a note and said the cost comparision is REd & Tacky is $4.98 for 14 oz compared to $15.99 for 15 oz of Treekote. The cost of an 8 lb tub is $89.99.
Now the question is how good will the Red N Tacky work.
December 1 20167
We are in a warm spot for a couple of more days. There are still lots of laves on the willow oaks. (more shortly)
November 23, 20167 Thursday Thanksgiving Day
It is close to the cankerworm migration up the trees. I read an article a couple of days ago in the Charlotte Observer that this week and next were the appropriate time to band trees for cankerworm.
I take issue with that because the willow oaks are loaded with leaves. We need a good rain, and wind to rid the trees of leaves. Back when cankerworms first became a problem after Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the timing for putting up cankerworm traps was about Thanksgiving. Each year it seems to start later and now is later in December. See this link
It takes a good Hard Freeze to get the cankerworms crawling. What that means is that it needs to be 27 degrees F. or cooler for about 3 days in a row to get the female canker worms moving.
If you band too soon you will have a lot of leaves captured in the Tanglefoot. If you use other products that protect the sticky stuff you are probably ok. The wind will tend to blow leaves under the Bug Barrier trap. Actually the other day I heard about 6 leaf blowers all making tremendous noise at the same time. There were 3 going two houses down from me and a like number up the street. I had to put on a head phone like ear protectors just to work in the yard.
Leaf blowers are really bad about blowing up leaves on to the cankerworm traps. It might be the operator who is careless, but in general if you put up a trap too early, the leaf blowers will ruin the trap.
Every year I watch the city band trees on the median of Queens Road West. A day or so later, the city or their contractor comes by and blows up so many leaves that the traps are covered. I will post a photo here later.
4.
5.November 18, 20167 Saturday
I am up and running at last. Just in time for the fall cankerworms it appears. Presently I am in Rochester New York. It is amazing how different the trees are here. It is especially obvious as we drive along the highway. I have been interested in the oak trees. They are in the process of turning from their fall colors to a blend of just brown. Conspicuously, the white oak are just brown, A few Scarlet oaks have retained their fall color. The Scarlet oak is one we don’t often see in the Charlotte area. Mostly we have willow oaks, white oaks, some Northern red oaks, water oaks, Southern Red oak ( this one’s leaf looks like a candle flame). Lesser seen are the chestnut oak and some mossy cup oaks that probably came from seeds brought down by a Dr. Tilley a dentist I think in about the 1930’s. There are some of these original trees on 7th Street, and I went by and got some great examples of their acorns. Photo here....soon. The name is Querscus macrocarpa which means large cap. I planted several of these over the years and one is on the property at Lake Norman Yacht Club. It is now about 50 feet tall and producing acorns for the past 10 yearsor so. More on acorns later.
6.
7.November 14, 20167 Tuesday (viewing on inspiron shows up on web most old potos on board . Still have to merge text from dec 6th to end of the year. Recover all photos and copy to Assets.
8.
9. November 06, 2017 Monday
- Other choices at this time are Home, Archive 1, and Archive 2 (this page is Archive 2)
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