Catalpa Worms: Are they out now?

**Bryan Roseberry** · 08-24-2005, 10:18 PM

They are out in Georgia!

willisjj · 08-25-2005, 02:41 AM

hey catman, those great big yellow grasshoppers are good bait too. I have caught some nice cats on those as well as bass and perch. I am flying in on Sunday. Sure wish I had time to do some fishing but that will come soon enough I guess if I get this job. The grasshoppers are pretty sparse here around Phoenix, and to my knowledge we have no catalpa trees at all down here.

**sam9266** · 08-25-2005, 03:23 PM

I just picked about 40 off of a Tree on the edge of creek behind work during my lunch hour. One of the leaves had a huge egg mass on it which means that there will be atleast one more hatch of worms on this tree.
The quantity of worms on a tree and how many hatches all depends on the number of moths that lay eggs on the particular tree and when. Thats why some years you might not get any worms but the next it may be loaded with worms. One moth lays between 100 and 1000 eggs on average. There is also a little wasp.. looks more like a fruit fly or something.. that will land on the worms,inject eggs under its skin and the eggs will then hatch, burrow out of its skin and make little bitty white cacoons all up and down the worms back. They stay attached to the worm feeding until they emegre from the cacoons. Once infected with the eggs the worm will live for awhile but will not make it to maturity and dies before going into the ground to pupate and overwinter. I saw several worms on this tree that were covered in the cacoons. The population of these wasp can have a direct effect on the worms this year as well as a decreased hatch next year due to fewer worms living to the moth stage to lay eggs again. Ive read that a lot of times the moth will return to the tree it was hatched on the lay its eggs.. kinda like salmon run miles upstream to the same holes they were born in to lay eggs themeselves... isnt nature a wonderful thing...lol
I have a little 3-4 foot Catalpa tree that I relocated from the river bank to my backyard last and will be putting about half of these worms on that tree to try to "seed" the tree. The other 20 are gonna be bait Friday night !!!

Good luck.... Sam

willisjj · 08-26-2005, 02:06 AM

Thats a lot of great information Sam. Thanks. That is a pretty informative post and maybe should be submitted to the library section or its equivalent here on the new site.

**Abu** · 08-26-2005, 09:41 AM

Here in southern Ohio there is one tree I found full of the catalpas and they have about half the leaves chewed off. That tree doesn't have any of the long stringbean looking things on it and the leaves are all chewed up from the catalpa worms. Two other huge catalpa trees I checked out has the green stringbean looking things on them but not a single worm. What are the stringbean looking things for and do they have to fall or become brown before any worms will be on the tree? Abu

**ryang** · 08-26-2005, 09:45 AM

What do the nests look like are these like the big wad of like spider nest looking things?

**Desperado** · 08-26-2005, 09:55 AM

No, those are bag worms , totally different. Find some catalpa tress and you will find them. Most are gone round where I get them.

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**sam9266** · 08-26-2005, 09:55 AM

Abu...

Those are just the seed pods. Im guessing that only sex of the tree gets them but Im not sure of that. As far as noticeing wether trees with or without pods get worms I havnt noticed. Most of the trees that I have found worms do have the pods tho.. maybe all of them.. not sure.. You can get the seeds from the pods after they are dry and plant them but I know where a few small knee high trees are that I plan on getting this fall when it cools down some. You can also order the trees fairly cheap from the Arbor Day Foundation web site.

Ryang...

Catalpa worms dont make nest or webs. They hatch out from egg masses on the underside of leaves then eat for 4-6 weeks until they are full grown and drop from the tree to the ground to burrow.

Take care.... Sam