Invasion! Update: The Aftermath!

[Barbwire]

Yesterday, as I picked rocks in the paddock, I kept hearing this odd noise. I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, then I smelled smoke and figured the neighbor's were burning something and the noise I heard was the fire.

After chores, I saddled up Amante and went up the road. There were some tent caterpillars hanging in the road from their silk at face level, but I just pushed them to the side and continued to a nearby one lane dirt road. I could hear the noise again, but it was much louder. It sounded just like rain falling on leaves. It was quite puzzling.

As I rode, the catapillars increased in density, landing on Amante, the saddle and worst of all, me! It was getting rather creepy, but I just kept going on, swatting them off as they landed, getting webbed up in their silk in the process. I rode on, flicking them high and low, giggling to myself as I pictured them slamming into the road and dying a painful, death.

Amante was acting agitated at all the movement in the saddle and the caterpillars landing on his face and made his displeasure known by snorting and shaking him head. I was all, "Knock it off, it's just a few bugs, wuss!"

Then they started landing on my bare toes!!! EEEK! (Being the ever-so safe rider that I am, I had sandals on and endurance stirrups with cages. ) The feeling of them on my feet was too much and I let out a shriek that sent Amante into overdrive trying to outrun whatever it was that was attacking and surely eating me alive.

I turned Amante toward home and let him go. We zoomed along, me shreaking like a banshee and Amante gaiting lickety split, in the process giving legions of creepy crawlies the rides of their lives. We pulled into the driveway, I jumped off as fast as I could and started flicking like a mad woman as Amante danced around me.

I finally got them all off, (Some had Paso smiles on their faces, I swear.) then bathed Amante to get the sweat, webs, and green guts off of him. After he was put away, I went in the house and took my sandals off. To my horror there were a few squished caterpillars between my toes! EEK! I almost barfed right there.

After my horrific ride I figured out that the weird noise I had been hearing was gazillions of caterpillars munching away in the trees. Friggin' things, now I can't ride because of them. Death to all tent caterpillars!!! http://homepage.mac.com/oatmeal/MAF/maxes/shakefist.gif



http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061Invasion_bb.jpg

[NikiGA]

:rofl Hey, you hear that?! ;-)

[Jasfino]

:shock: Yuck!!.... too many bugs are..... too many bugs...

I wonder if we have anything like that going on around here????
I havent seen them if we do. Maybe Bigfoot eats them all for breakfast..

[Barbwire]

Well, if Bigfoot eats them, ship him here! With all of these caterpillars crawling all over the place, the electric pasture fence has turned into a giant bug zapper. I just love to hear the POP! as they get fried. :twisted:

[Jasfino]

If hubby runs into him again.. I'll tell him to let him know that the eatings better up your way.... :roll

[jodiTowne]

Yup....got them here too. My cousin couldn't open her door the other day...too many catapillars in the way!!!! I heard they are causing traffic accidentss...guts are too slippery!!

[Barbwire]

I know we get them every year, I just don't remember them being so noisy. I certainly haven't had them keep me off my horse, until now. The whole thing just creeps me out.

[DebbieS]

Poor Barb and Amante! Nose flies drive Listo insane - I can't imagine all those icky catapillars.

[Heidi]

...getting webbed up in their [caterpillars] silk in the process.

...let out a shriek that sent Amante into overdrive trying to outrun whatever it was that was attacking and surely eating me alive.
That would be me...caterpillar silk would feel too much like spider webs. You'd be able to hear my shrieks several states away.
Can you say: "Heebie-Jeebies"?
Heidi

[Barbwire]

I am not quite positive, but I think when I saw them on my feet, I got my first ever case of "the vapors". :shock:

[Heidi]

I am not quite positive, but I think ... I got my first ever case of "the vapors". :shock:
Were you breathing in and out very fast through your mouth? Enough to suck your lower lip back and forth over your teeth? Eyes very wide and able to see everything with crystal clarity, yet still remain focused only on the 'thing'? Sometimes accompanied by a high-pitched noise that sounds like whining or an aaaaiiieeee! sound?
Yup. That could have been the vapors. Not that I'd know, or anything....

[Barbwire]

I am not quite positive, but I think ... I got my first ever case of "the vapors". :shock:
Were you breathing in and out very fast through your mouth? Enough to suck your lower lip back and forth over your teeth? Eyes very wide and able to see everything with crystal clarity, yet still remain focused only on the 'thing'? Sometimes accompanied by a high-pitched noise that sounds like whining or an aaaaiiieeee! sound?
Yup. That could have been the vapors. Not that I'd know, or anything....

So, I'm guessing the photo of the cyclops kitten gave you the vapors? :lol: :razz: :lol: :razz: :lol:

[lisa l aka marci]

Gee Barb, I didn't have that problem when I went out Sunday.....although I ~could~ hear the little buggers' poop faling thorugh the leves and hear them munching.....

[Barbwire]

Oh gawd! It's their poop I hear? Ack! I rode Amante late Sunday afternoon after you left and I could hear them but there were none to be seen. The fact they all "launched" on the next day makes it even more nightmarish. It's like a real invasion, all right.

[PASOFAN]

They come every 4yrs here in MN and WI, in the millions! I cant stand them, when you squash them they smell really bad.. eeewwweeeee

I loved your story, felt like I was right their with ya, can even see both you and Amante dancin around flickin them off you..lol

[Abejita]

http://www.shasta.com/suesgoodco/newcivilians/faq/qvapors.htm

The Vapors....

[ErinC]

barb we went out yesterday too, and if we were not talking thats all you could hear, it sounded like we were in the rain forest, with NO Rain!

I wish someone knew for sure it is is munching or pooing, I have heard 50/50 some sai eatting some say going poopy!?!?!

it is nasty! they are so bad this year.

[appyday]

Barb I peed my pants when I read that... :roll:

[PasoPerson38]

ahahaha had to be Barb.... :lol:
OH MY GOSH BARB WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR FOOT!?!?!?! :jawdrop

[Monty]

Only way to get rid of them is burn the tent ! At least that is what we use to do - have never had them as bad as you are saying! YUUKYPOO :!:

[motorgypsy]

When my mom was growing up near NYC about 80 years ago her school had a bagworm drive to collect the pupae of the tent caterpillars before they hatched. Well of course she won the drive but the teacher put the bagworms in her closet and let them stay there a little too long and had an entire closet's worth of hatchlings munching on anything in sight. I'd love to have seen her expression when she opened that closet door! Talk about the vapors!

[hast]

:shock: :shock: :shock: Oh my... that might have kept even me from riding :shock: :shock: :shock:

[Edurne]

so that was what was crawling on my leg yesterday..... that cute little green thing :D

[Barbwire]

The cute little green things are another kind of critter, altogether. They are out here too, but not nearly as bad as the tent catapillars.

[TrueStepPaso]

I almost barfed right there.

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/obscene/eck22.gif

Well, I just laughed right here.

[reuben T]

we usually get a few, ever take a close look? they're colored very beautiful, intricate design. if they wern't so abundant they'd be interesting.

[Barbwire]

Today they are all over everything, including the house. HELP! I had the garage door open for a few minutes and there were hundreds of them crossing the threshold. You can't walk anywhere in bare feet without stepping on them. They keep falling in the horse's water trough, and I have to clean almost hourly. This is too much!!!

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061invasion__2006.jpg

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061invasion_2006_2.jpg

[ErinC]

:shocked

[Brigitte]

That's just disgusting..Glad I'm far far away across an occean :lol:

[Barbwire]

Froggy's thinking, "If I eat one more of these things I'm gonna hurl!"

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061froggy.jpg

[JennLM]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/JennLM/smileys2/dramaticdeath.gif

OK I would have fainted right off the top of the horse. Hmm aybe not, then my face would be dragging in the leftovers on the ground ewwwww.

We don't get those but get these little tiny biting flying bugs. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/JennLM/smileys/twitch.gif How did I find out? We have just moved in here and I went to have an ice jacuzzi tub bath. I test the water, put in the bathing salts, and get in letting the water envelope me. It got full enough and I hit the button to make it jacuzz, and millions of these things came flying out on me. I never ran so fast unclothed in my life and such screams could be heard. (Most likely the neighbors blending with mine in unison) Then I cried and cried. I REALLY hate bugs they freak me out badly. Troy has to relocate or kill ALL bugs/spiders/creepy crawlies in this house.

I would not have lived through your ordeal, my heart would have given out. Put me in my firefighting equipment and in a fire and I would happily take that over those.. those.. those.. THINGS you have. Eeeeeeeew!!! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/JennLM/smileys2/fainting.gif

[Edurne]

oooooooooooooooooh....... those pix make my toes curl....... okay you have my sympathy

[GeorgeGuns]

Barb I feel your pain! What I hate most about summer is the bugs, and since I dont get to tuck in my crew til after dark, its nasty here.. no tent worms TG, but ACK the beetles are kamikazi this year, and the rest of them are TNTC and plain drive me nuts! I'm quite ready for fall already.

[jodiTowne]

Barb...you always get the best pictures!!!!!

[motorgypsy]

Long ago I informed Kyle that it was in the fine print in the marriage license that it was his job to catch and relocate all his bug pets that he finds so fascinating. Men do love to hear women squeal though. I'm convinced it's part of the Y chromosome - the "try to get girls to squeal gene"

[Edurne]

TNTC???????????????????/

[CarolU]

Barb, we had an invasion of Army worms (I'm sure relatives of your little buggers) that 'march' onto your property and eat everything. I posted pictures when this happened two years ago. One liberal application of snail bait got rid of them. (don't use insect spray on them, they puke their guts out and then it's REALLY gross smelling, hard to clean up too!).

[paintedhorizon]

OMG! It IS an invasion!

[TrueStepPaso]

Okay...here's the really freaky thing. Barb must have taken those pics of the bugs on her house yesterday morning, because I got like 3 different phone calls from tenants here in our office building saying the caterpillars were all over their doors! Hundreds of them! They were freakin because they couldn't get outside without them falling on them.

I didn't believe it until I went outside...and they were INVADING. I swear those things have crazy internal clocks set up to be totally synchronized. They climb the trees all at once, climb buildings/homes at the same time, and gawd forbid you are out when they launch from the trees at the same time......EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!http://www.websmileys.com/sm/obscene/eck15.gif

[Edurne]

gross

[Abejita]

they are also the cause of MRLS They secrete a cyanide like substance when squished and I think leave a trail on the grass etc.Pregnant mares (and mares trying to get pregnant) ingest this and it causes problems like dystocias, abortions etc etc.I kinda remember something about fluid on the heart in some older horses also .They came out with a new chemical that you actually inject into the tree so when the catpillars eat the leaves it kills them..

[motorgypsy]

The tent caterpillers really like wild cherry tree leaves and wilted wild cherry (and other fruit tree leaves) produce cyanide so you just make sure you don't have wild cherry in your pastures because a friend lost her goats after a hurricane took down a big limb and her goats ate the leaves and it killed them. They start producing cyanide about 30 minutes into the wilt stage and don't stop until the leaves are brown. it doesn't hurt the horses or goats to eat the leaves if they aren't wilted - fresh on the tree. But I either fence them off or cut them down. Too scary.

[Barbwire]

Look what they have done to the trees! I took these today.

Doesn't look too bad, right?

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061hill_bb.jpg

Look closer

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/65061hill_2_bb.jpg

[Abejita]

gheeze louise

[reuben T]

now that's what I'd call a plague, almost looks like a winter picture.
We were walking down the drive some years back and found some worm turds that were unbelievably huge, turned out to be a hickery horned devil. http://hilarynelson.com/Hobbies/Bugs/HickoryHornedDevilCaterpillar

[motorgypsy]

Amazing!

[Brigitte]

:shock: :shock:

[GeorgeGuns]

Isn't that endearing........not!

[CarolU]

I read that the East Coast is going through a Gypsy Moth infestation. The catapillars do just that to the trees. They spary here for Gypsy Moths, one of the times that 'biological warfare' works really well. They spray bacillus therengencis out, a bacteria that is non pathogenic at all to mammels, spiders, etc., but kills catapillars. I wonder why they didn't spray. They'll come back again and again if they don't.

[Barbwire]

We actually have a 3 prong attack going on here. The legions are comprised of Gypsy moth, Eastern tent and Forest tent caterpillars. From what I've read, they run in cycles, so we are looking at 2-3 years of infestation followed by a decline in numbers that will not rise up again for 10 years or so. (some sites say 8, others, 15)

[PASOFAN]

That is bad, in northern WI along lk superiior they would get taht bad some yrs.. They are icky and sure are bad to have around. I cant even figure out one good reason they are around..

[JennLM]

gives me the heebie jeebies, ick!

[DebbieS]

We don't have any of those things, thank goodness. We do have the beetles that kill the pine trees, though. They have to cut the trees out and burn them to kill the pine beetles. They aren't allowed to spray them. It's kind of a hot topic here in the hills.....

Hope they go away soon, Barb!!