Hyphantria cunea

Lepidoptera: Arctiidae

Identification
• Caterpillars are light-colored, hairy, and up to 1¹/₂" long. One race has black heads with a black stripe and rows of black dots; the other race is red-headed with no markings. (a)
• The caterpillars live colonially in a silk tent spun over the end of a branch containing leaves. (b)
• The adults are white moths with a 1¹/₂" wingspan.
• They occur both in late spring and late summer south of Springfield, IL, but only in late summer in the north.

Damage
• The caterpillars eat the edges of leaves and defoliate branches inside the silk tents.
• Crabapple, maple, walnut, hickory, pecan, wild cherry, oak, and other trees are hosts.

Management
• Do nothing. Defoliation of deciduous trees in late summer or early fall is unlikely to harm the tree’s health.
• Prune out silk tents containing larvae or pull them off the tree.
• Spray a bacterial insecticide with enough pressure to break up the water-resistant silk tent.