Jim--

Last night on *Bird Talk* our Backyard Birding segment was a phone-in
from Janet Partlow who talked about tent caterpillers and fall web worms..
she said what we are seeing now are not tents, but fall web worms..(I
think I got that right)..she distinguished them as to location...tents in
the crotch of a tree or near the trunk..web worm tents out on the ends of
branches..she also pointed out that the TC's crawl out of the tent to feed
and will strip a tree returning to the tent in the evening to
*roost*..the WW's apparently chow down where they are and stay within
the tent..and while only starlings have been observed eating TC's the
WW's are more attractive to birds and Janet said she's seen chicadees rip
apart a tent to get at them..we didn't discuss the cycle of WW's..she talked
about the predatory little wasp that lays its eggs on the TC's..After a
boom caterpiller year it's not uncommon to see several white eggs cases
on a single TC..I don't know what control is on the WW's..we didn't discuss
that, or I slept through it..

Tom

Tom Foote footet at elwha.evergreen.edu
Lab II
The Evergreen State College (360) 866-6000 x6118
Olympia, WA 98505






On Thu, 24 Aug 1995, James Neitzel wrote:

> Building on the observations of ups and downs of other birds- I am
> starting to notice lots of tent caterpillar webs in trees driving around
> Thurston County. In other parts of the country, these insect
> accumulations seem to attract specific predators-cuckoos being one
> example. What birds in the lowland Northwest eat these insects? Is
> there any known cyclic decrease/increase known for birds correlated tyo
> these insects?.
> Another important control for these insects is viral/bacterial disease,
> but my bias would be for some neat bird to be involved-wishful thinking?
>
> PS-I concur with Jon Andersons's comments about red-breasted nuthatches.
> I have been stuck in the lowlands all summer and Have seen and heard lots
> of nuthatches, certainly not an unusually low number.
> Jim Neitzel
>
>
>