Pest I.D and management please

[josharb87]

Neighbor has some large ash trees, the ones that stand alone in the lawn are affected by these small green caterpillars each year, there’s thousands of them and strip the trees bare of leaves each year, the trees then flush again.

no other trees in the area are affected, there’s maples and apple trees they don’t touch, and the ash trees that have lilac bushes around the base are not affected, only ash trees growing in the lawn.

i know the name of the caterpillars verbally in Swedish, but not the correct spelling so can’t find the Latin.

my suggestion has been to build a chicken enclosure around the trees as the caterpillars are constantly falling down and climbing up again. . But better solutions are appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2655443/The-hungry-caterpillars-Amazing-pictures-millions-tiny-green-insects-swarming-single-ash-tree.html

 

Have a look at this..

[Mick Dempsey]

One comment on that DM article says Sawfly Larvae, he might well be right.

[Paul Cleaver]

3 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

One comment on that DM article says Sawfly Larvae, he might well be right.

looks more like a moth caterpillar to me Mick - im not 100% though

[Mick Dempsey]

Need to get a closeup of the wee beasty to be sure.

 

https://www.afbini.gov.uk/news/defoliation-ash-trees-ni-afbi-scientists-solve-problem

 

The migration down the trunk described in this article steered me towards the sawfly.

 

I’m only googling about though, be nice to find out for sure.

[Mike Hill]

My wife the Biologist sayes they are tomostethus nigritus

 

I say it looks like about a grand.

[Gary Prentice]

47 minutes ago, Mike Hill said:

My wife the Biologist sayes they are tomostethus nigritus

 

I say it looks like about a grand.

 

There's some good close-ups here..

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/hymenoptera/symphyta/tenthredinidae/blennocampinae/tomostethus/tomostethus-nigritus/