Good Morning!

[Ontario Chick]

Good morning, spending all my free time spraying caterpillars with soapy water, can't say I am making much headway, accept for the ones that got a direct hit. I see many egg sacks already formed, way too high for me to do anything about.
the scary part is that they are on ALL the trees , even smoke shrubs, revolting things.... seems even the birds find them unpalatable

[labradors]

Does soapy water actually kill caterpillars?

BT works, but it's a bit late for that. It's organic, and has to be sprayed onto the leaves which then poison caterpillars when they eat them.

Linda

[lolotsung]

Vegetable oil kills caterpillars and I think soap kills any insect. We have been using the vaseline around the tree and squish method. Hardly have any caterpillars left. Our chickens like eating the moths but not the caterpillars.

Apparently yellow paint kills them too. Had to stop my son as soon as I saw him experimenting.

Here are a few Gypsy Moth links and photos I found:

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/gypsymot ... omeowners/

https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/ ... erpillars/

The Immature (orange dots at centreline) and Mature ( blue and red dots offset from centreline) forms look different

[WLLady]

aspirin for a 60g turkey... I would think a quarter of an adult chicken dose... Depending on how you make it up. One half adult aspirin (350mg) dissolved in 250 ml water and then take that and dilute 1:1 again.... Then give 100ul-2 drops from a 1ml syringe.... 60g is really tiny...

Gypsy moth egg masses can be killed by soaking in soap.... They recommend scraping off egg masses and soaking 2 days in soapy water. If you have a hose soap sprayer (like for washing your car or your siding) you could put dish soap into it and then spray the eggs down several times over two days and hopefully make a dent in the egg numbers.... Personally i would stock up on btk and then start spraying trees in early may next year as soon as frost is done and spray weekly for 8 weeks or so.

[Killerbunny]

He is doing OK. Seems to be over the shock so just treating the eye now which looks much better. Not sure if he'll ever get use of it back but as a home bird it shouldn't be an issue.

[Ontario Chick]

After serious consideration, I have decided to spray only the 10 paper birches by the house and barn and our 20 apple trees and abandon rest, there is a limit to my caterpillar enthusiasm.
On a good note saw a pair of goldfinches working the birches in front of the house, definitely harvesting something.....

First cukes from the garden, there is nothing quite like it , and 4 (four) raspberries !!!!

[lolotsung]

I setup the Wyze CAM 3 with colour night vision. I'm trying to see what is living under our coop The Twitch link is below.

https://www.twitch.tv/v3g3m1te

[lolotsung]

Wow the Wyze Cam's Starlight Mode is much better than the Samsung Note 10+ Both photos were taken at the same time.

[lolotsung]

same time with night vision

[Kbr42]

Great shots.....did you figure out what's under your coop @lolotsung

And just in general why is it so cool in July...lol