Hundreds, maybe thousands, of these moth larvae are making their cocoons at the expense of our neighbors conifer shrub. They surround themselves with a sticky string that they secrete and then the needles are stuck and woven to that soft inner case. I wish a picture could capture the creaky, scratchy sound that from a distance this bush seemed to make-hundreds of caterpillars slowing stretching out of their cocoons, inching forward or falling to the ground, and then dragging the cocoons back towards their head. Spectacular and a little creepy.
.
.What looks like a Christmas tree in January...needles brown and hanging limply...is actually a site of metamorphosis for these
caterpillars, destined to become moths, who, for a couple of weeks, are calling these dead needles 'home'.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of these moth larvae are making their cocoons at the expense of our neighbors conifer shrub. They surround themselves with a sticky string that they secrete and then the needles are stuck and woven to that soft inner case. I wish a picture could capture the creaky, scratchy sound that from a distance this bush seemed to make-hundreds of caterpillars slowing stretching out of their cocoons, inching forward or falling to the ground, and then dragging the cocoons back towards their head. Spectacular and a little creepy.
.
