If you've noticed silky, tent-like webs wrapped around the ends of branches lately, you're not alone. Fall webworm is active across the Upstate right now, and it's especially easy to spot on pecans, persimmons, sourwoods, sweetgums, and black walnuts along roadsides and in backyards.
Inside those webs, caterpillars feed on the leaves they've enclosed, expanding the tent as they go. It looks alarming, but on an established, healthy tree the damage is usually cosmetic. The feeding happens late in the season, when the tree has already done most of its work for the year.
Where nests are within safe reach, pruning out the affected branch tips or pulling the web open for birds and wasps to find the caterpillars can help. Please don't try to burn nests out of a tree or climb a ladder with a pole saw to reach high ones. When a young tree is heavily infested year after year, or webs show up alongside other signs of decline, that's worth a closer look from a Certified Arborist.
How many webworm tents have you spotted in the trees around your home this fall?
#TreeHealth #UpstateSC
An authentic close-up of a fall webworm tent wrapped around the end of a branch on a pecan, persimmon, or sourwood in the Upstate. Real photos strongly preferred over stock.
Canva text suggestion: "Those Webs in Your Trees Have a Name" or "Fall Webworm: What to Know"