Residents of certain areas of the southeast have noticed more forest tent caterpillars in their yards than usual.

Fiona Ross is the Pest Management Biologist with Manitoba Sustainable Development. She says forest tent caterpillars come in cycles and notes we are at the peak at the moment. Ross says they usually peak for about two to three years until predators such as birds come along and reduce the population. She says there are ways of getting rid of them.

"Some of them involve just taking a broom or using your hands you can just sweep them up and dispose of them. Sometimes people hose them off of trees if they want and they sort of sweep them up and dispose of them. In the fall time, you can look for the egg masses on the branches and then you can always remove those egg masses or remove the twigs with the egg masses and then there are insecticides that can be used for forest tent caterpillars but we always recommend people just check with the local retailer to find out what’s currently available."

We've received reports from people who live in the La Broquerie and Ste. Anne area saying they have seen abnormal amounts of these caterpillars in their yards and even on the side of their homes.

"Generally in the hot weather during the day, the caterpillars aren’t feeding, they are kind of resting," notes Ross. "Usually during the daytime when they’re on people’s houses, they’re actually looking for a place to hang out that’s shady or they’re moving across to get to a tree. They like to hang out in large groups because it helps them avoid predators. They live in trees, they generally really like poplars, in cities and stuff they also can eat ash trees and cherries and some other species as well but generally trembling aspen and poplar are some of their favourites."

Ross expects this peak to taper off within the next year or two.