The Energy City is preparing for the appearance of the ubiquitous tent caterpillar, a prevalent pest in the southeast of Saskatchewan, this spring. There have been reports of prolific infestations of tent caterpillars in many places, including Esterhazy, Raymore and Yorkton.
Rod March, manager of open spaces, forestry and pest management with the City of Estevan, noted that the pests are beginning to appear locally, in significant numbers, though not quite in the excessive numbers seen elsewhere in the southeast.
“Currently, we are seeing visible clumps on trunks of trees, mostly ash, poplar and fruit trees,” wrote March in a media release from the City of Estevan. “If conditions deteriorate, we make look at hiring a contractor to fog, but only as a last resort, as trees rarely die from these infestations. It takes two to three years of the infestations to kill a tree.”
March noted that otherwise, the levels of pests in Estevan are at normal, endemic levels. March noted that the presence of tent caterpillars in southeast Saskatchewan, is in a large part due to the warm spring in the southeast.
“Because of that warm spring and the lack of moisture in the ground, many species of flies and certain species of wasps that are predators of (tent caterpillar) larvae didn’t have the habitat to breed,” March said.
Another reason for the high number of tent caterpillars in areas like Esterhazy is the result of the high point of a cycle the critters go through, noting, “Every 10 years or so, you’ll see them in a cycle, coming out in high numbers. We’ve seen that many times before.”
Tent caterpillars tend to be an enormous nuisance because of their ability to defoliate trees, eating all the leaves, but March said they tend to clump together in clusters, and are attracted to warm parts of the tree, often clustering on the south-facing portion of the tree. He advised that the best thing to do if one spots tent caterpillars is to “squash them, wipe them off the tree and move on.” March also noted another good method of removing the caterpillars is to spray them with a high pressure hose, using a solution of 30 per cent water, 30 per cent vinegar and 30 per cent dish soap.
As for the matter of diseases, March stated the only threat the trees of Estevan are facing this year is black knot fungus. Black knot fungus affects trees in the prunus genus, which includes cherry, and Mayday trees.
“We have a lot of those kinds of trees here, and it’s big that we stop black knot growth on new growth,” said March, “We’re trying to rid the city of that, because it’s a big problem.”
March said he will be testing for the disease in mid-July, when symptoms of the disease start appearing on affected trees. He encouraged anyone looking to remove growths on their trees to cut the branch at a point under the growth, to dispose of infected branches by burying or burning them.
“If anything shows, I’ll bring it to the lab and have it tested. Within five days, I’ll have results back,” said March. “Last year, any testing done by the lab showed all negative results, so we were in pretty good shape.”
In anticipation of the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games, March said everything is looking good, and going according to plan, as far as greenery around the city is concerned.
“The medians, as you’ve probably seen, all have the sod down on them right now,” said March, referring to the medians on Souris Avenue North. “Brickwork is complete there, and this week our flowers have shown up. We’ll be putting those flower pots up, at points all over the city.”
Later, in early June, March said the trees that will be planted around the city will be delivered. Several of those delivered trees will be getting planned in Royal Heights Veterans Memorial Park, as part of the ongoing revitalization effort for the park.
“We’re hoping to start around June 8. We’ll also be planting some around Affinity Place, to replace ones that didn’t make it, in the original planting,” said March. “A few more will go by the visitor’s centre, too, just to spruce up that area a bit. That’ll be the start of our annual tree planting program.”
In addition to the new trees, March said the city will soon be starting on its pathway projects for Royal Heights.
“We’re totally overhauling Royal Heights’ pathway, and once they are in place, we’re going to do some landscaping around the new spray park, and will be opening it,” said March. “We expect that to be around the third week of June, weather permitting.”
