Catalpa worm experiment

silvertip

Six Pointer
Just put 5 dozen in cornmeal and put in freezer.
Took another 4 dozen and put in almost boiling water for 1 minute and then ice water
Vacuum sealed dozen at a time
Have always just put in cornmeal and froze, anyone every tried the blanching process?
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
no , but have done the corn meal thing lots of times. the secret to cornmeal is to put them in Ice water for 5 mins or so....then put on paper towels and pat dry. this "locks" in their color. then put in cornmeal and freeze.
 

Soilman

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Me and my neighbor have plenty of catalpa trees, but they don't have any worms. We've been hoping they would show up one summer.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
I have the same situation. Up until lately, the only thing I had was a little tree with about 3 leaves. I have since located a much larger one. There is a tree at my son's house which has always had worms. As soon as he starts seeing some I am going to get a bag of small ones and put them on my tree and see if the stay. Not sure what the process is but I think you have to have worms on the tree initially before you have any future worms.
 

silvertip

Six Pointer
We tried putting some on trees and have never got it to work, don't know?

I have 3 or 4 trees in the wild that I keep a eye on starting around the 4th every year, and a big tree in a lady's yard but she told me this week that she is going to have it cut afraid it is going to fall on her house.
I used to have a tree in a man's yard you could get a 2 gallon bucket full off of, he was about 90 when he died and the first thing the new owners done was cut it down.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
We never let ours get to be a tree. It was cut down at some point and 15' limbs grew out of the trunk every year. They were easy to lean over and pick the worms. After the last crop of worms was gone we would cut them off at the trunk and they would come right back the next year.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
We tried putting some on trees and have never got it to work, don't know?

I have 3 or 4 trees in the wild that I keep a eye on starting around the 4th every year, and a big tree in a lady's yard but she told me this week that she is going to have it cut afraid it is going to fall on her house.
I used to have a tree in a man's yard you could get a 2 gallon bucket full off of, he was about 90 when he died and the first thing the new owners done was cut it down.
Put the smallest ones you can find. It is best if you can get them if they are almost microscopic, soon as they get on the host tree. They will leave soon as you put them on there if you use big ones. We have seeded numerous trees from my trees here and learned the hard way.
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
I have one in my front yard....Had 2 in yard growing up... I put worms on one where I live now and had worms for 5 or 6 years. last 10 years I have had zero. and I have reseeded it several times. ugh.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have one in my front yard....Had 2 in yard growing up... I put worms on one where I live now and had worms for 5 or 6 years. last 10 years I have had zero. and I have reseeded it several times. ugh.
If you notice you will see that they have those white fuzzy things on them. Also it will look like a type of wasp is after the adults. They sting them and inject eggs (parasitic) in them. They have been bad lately. They will wipe a whole tree out, if that has happend to yours they didn't get to go into the ground and complete their life cycle and that is why your tree has been barren. You may have to reseed it again.
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
I did know that and did have a mild problem with that. Just havnt been able to reseed it. I was going to this year but every tree I go by on a daily basis was bare of worms and I go by a lot on the way to work. one railroad track parallels a road for 2 miles or so has bunches on caltapa trees between it and the road. all of them were bare this year.

if anyone on here gets a second hatch let me know if I can come and get some .........
 
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