Question
Balitimore, Maryland
    I have 4 small pine trees in front lawn. The pine on one tree began to turn brown at the bottom and the pine needles fell to ground, as if burned by sun. We had a bad heat wave several weeks ago and I thought the tree was severely affected. Today, we discoved cocoons or pod-like shape made from the dead pine leaves on the tree. As we were examining the pods, a fat worm came out at the end, stretching out and then it went back in. The same happened with the other pods. The worms looked like the kind of worms found the silk of corn, only bigger and fatter. We found one pod/cocoon in the second pine tree. These things are ugly and they are killing the tree - please, do you know what they are and how can I save these trees? Thank you. Marty Rollins  

Answer
These insects are called bagworms. They will spend most of their life in the bag eating the foliage of many plnats. They make their bags out of the dead leaves or needles. They can be controlled with an insecticide spray or by just picking them off the tree and destroying the bags (this depends on the size of the tree and if one can reach the bags to pick). The Bt insecticide spray works best when the caterpillars are small. Chemical sprays will work when the insets are larger. You will have to spray all the foliage completely. This can be difficult with larger trees and may take a power sprayer and having a pest control company do this. Here is a web link to more information on bagworms and it contains a list of insecticide that will contol bagworms.  http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2149.html