A spooky look to a spooky season

More stories from Chris Spenelli

The Scoop on Shmoop
March 19, 2018
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  It is early fall. The leaves are changing. There is a chill in the air, and the wind moves with the scent of rotting leaves. The foliage in the trees is alive with vibrant shades of red,yellow and orange. But wait, what is that? That  mess of webs spanning across the trees. Have spiders taken over? No, they have not. Those are just fall webworms.

  The name is self explanatory. Webworms are larvae that create webs in late summer and the early fall. They are indigenous to the U.S., but can be found in places around the world. There is an abundance of them in parts of Asia and Europe. According to entomologists these bugs are among the few insect pests that have been introduced from North America to other continents.

 

  The webworm`s larvae is a dull yellow with black spots along their bodies, and they are everywhere. They create silken webs that cover the leaves which they feed on. With more and more larvae eating and spinning webs, the larvae create larger web structures around the branches. With so many of these worms spinning webs on trees, they create an environment that looks like Halloween has come early,      

“ I didn’t know that caterpillars could make webs,” Azriel Caraballo, sophomore,said.

  Although these caterpillars might seem like a nuisance, there is nothing better to signify the beginning of fall than some spooky webs in trees. The webworms are the perfect aesthetic pest for Halloween. The giant clump of webs,creepy and disgusting,create a spooky setting.

  Despite them creating a ghostly look in the forests, webworms are quite harmless. The webs are located at the outer ends of branches, and other than causing defoliation, the webs do not do extensive damage to the tree. There is nothing to worry about; entomologists say the worms are harmless.