The City of Nanaimo isn’t concerned about the number of caterpillars tenting in Nanaimo this spring.
The city issued a press release this week, noting that Nanaimo residents are noticing a lot of tent caterpillars in trees lately.
The species is native to the Island and nest in trees every year, but every five to seven years can break out in large infestations, the city stated.
The release notes that the creatures do not cause significant or lasting damage to healthy mature trees, so city staff normally do nothing about them and let nature take its course and only treat a nest of them if they are in a location where they can become a nuisance, such as a busy park bench, or to protect the crop from a fruit tree.
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Treatment options include removing branches tent caterpillars have nested on or applying BTK, “a biological insecticide … considered safe for humans and other animals,” that is widely available at garden centres and hardware stores.
“Despite the number of tent caterpillars in our local trees this year, they are not dangerous,” said Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog in the release. “Staff have been aware of larger numbers this year. As they are a native species and will not harm the overall health of the tree, there is no major concern or urgency to remove them.”
For more information on tent caterpillars, visit the Government of Canada website http://ow.ly/8hIV50OqAJN.
chris.bush@nanaimobulletin.com
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