Caterpillars hanging from high trees??

[Ammo2868]

Hi,

While in Wellington Country Park today, we saw hundreds of Caterpillars hanging by threads from trees. The Caterpillars were mainly brown in colour, varied between 1/8" to 1 inch long and were wriggling around suspended by these threads which appeared to be attached some 6 to 15 feet up in the trees, hanging between 5 and 8 feet from the ground.

I've never seen this before. I understand from trying to research this that this can be a defense mechanism in Caterpillars, but surely not this many, at the same time and so high up..!

Please help as we really struggled to tell my niece what they were doing and we really want to know too!

Thank you, AMA

[Cheryl]

I think they might be one of the sawfly larvae ? - I was walking through a wooded area the other day and it was definitely a case of head down, mouth closed and when I got through to the other side had to brush myself down - Urgh!!

Did they look like this?



Interested to know what they are too

[mmilne]

This technique used by caterpillars is called 'ballooning' - they produce a long silk thread from which they hang, which is carried by the wind from the tree where they hatched to another nearby tree. I think they use this technique when their time of hatching hasn't coincided with the tree's bud burst, when the leaves are tenderest - so they try their luck somewhere else.

If the caterpillars you saw had thin white stripes down the side (as in Chery's photo), they were probably winter moth larvae - they're usually described as pale green, but I've seen them in a range of shades from green to brown or almost black.

In the last few days I've had a massive invasion by ballooning larvae. They've devastated nearly all the trees in the garden, including oak, hazel, apple, pear, quince, and even willow. I just hope the trees will recover when the larvae have gone to ground and pupated, hopefully in a week or two.

Mike

[Ammo2868]

Mike - Thank you so much for your reply, very helpful indeed. It's very odd though. They were a very long way down from the trees.. I hope you're garden lives through your invasion, good luck and thank you again.


Cheryl - That's just what I was like! Constantly having to brush off never-ending threads. In terms of your picture - I think so, the majority of them were like that, there were a couple of standard looking green ones too.


Thank you!

[GreenAdam]

My girlfriend and I recently saw this while out walking. Each silk string was probably 10-15 feet in length. They were crawling with caterpillrs probably at least 20 on each. Not sure if this is the ballooning an above poster described as it seems hard to imagine the wind would carry them well. The caterpillars we saw wer small yellowish green with a few black spots along their sides. I've never seen this before so i'd be interested to hear if anyone else has.

[mmilne]

Originally Posted by GreenAdam

My girlfriend and I recently saw this while out walking. Each silk string was probably 10-15 feet in length. They were crawling with caterpillrs probably at least 20 on each. Not sure if this is the ballooning an above poster described as it seems hard to imagine the wind would carry them well. The caterpillars we saw wer small yellowish green with a few black spots along their sides. I've never seen this before so i'd be interested to hear if anyone else has.

How interesting! You're right, this isn't the ballooning technique, which would only have one caterpillar at the end of the thread. But I think caterpillars also use silk threads to lower themselves to the ground when they're ready to start pupating underground - perhaps what you saw were caterpillars 'hitching a ride' on other caterpillars' threads? Green with black spots might be sawfly larva, possibly?

Mike

[LostTranquility]

while out for a walk i too saw this wierd caterpillar thing. the caterpillars that i saw hanging from the threads had a black body, weren't very hairy and had red ends. they were also on a bench. when i stopped to look at them they mainly seemed to be moving towards the floor all the while squirming as if they couldn't escape. hope this helps us discover the mystery of the hanging caterpilars!

[pocketsized]

Hi - I am not sure of the name of the caterpillars but they hatch to coincide with the hatching of the bluetit chicks. This is the explanation from the RSPB for youngsters The blue tit and the caterpillar - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Hope the link works.

[GreenAdam]

Originally Posted by mmilne

How interesting! You're right, this isn't the ballooning technique, which would only have one caterpillar at the end of the thread. But I think caterpillars also use silk threads to lower themselves to the ground when they're ready to start pupating underground - perhaps what you saw were caterpillars 'hitching a ride' on other caterpillars' threads? Green with black spots might be sawfly larva, possibly?

Mike

Don't think so, they didn't look like picture posted earlier. they were more a light yellowish green with small black spots. Best bet is they were trying to get to the ground, justseems odd as it seems far more exposed to be dangling in the open than to simply climb down the plant. Maybe they were trying to hitch a lift on passers by? If so they suceeded at least once as i saw a jogger run through about three lots of them. Hoping they survived :/

[Ladywell]

Pocketsuzed - you hijacked my thoughts - I was just about post the same thing re blue tits!!