Question
My son transplanted a Catabawa tree last year. He put a lot of worms on it last season.  This year the tree has really grown, has a lot of pods but only a couple of worms.  The worms have their heads like tucked back towards their body and the tree has a lot of black ants on it.  Are the ants eating the worms?  How can we get rid of the ants and not kill the tree or the worms?  Thanks for your help!

Answer
The ants are not killing the caterpillars but there is a wasp that will lays its eggs on the caterpillar and kill the insect. You might try getting some eggs masses from a heavily infested tree and moving them to your tree. That way next year the caterpillar population should be higher. You can move small caterpillars as well to increase the population.

There is not really anything that can be done to control the wasps except increase the caterpillar population so some will live.