Soon after the Leaftier worm hatches from its egg in early May, it travels to the terminal shoots of the hydrangea. Web formers or fall webworms are general feeders on nearly all trees except conifers, although they tend to prefer apple and other fruit trees, ash, elm, hickory, linden, mulberry, oak, poplar, sweetgum, walnut, persimmon and willow. Here is how the leaf tier looks when the leaves are bound together. All species build silken nests around the host plant's foliage, which they inhabit individually or in groups. Answer: Your smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’) is suffering from leaf tier caterpillars (Olethreutes ferriferana). They fold edges of leaves together or fasten the leaves together with strands of silk and feed within the shelter thus formed. do to leaves looks similar. A Bag of rolled leaves (Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Meadowbank, New South Wales) They hide in the bag by day, emerging to feed at night. It seems you can destroy the caterpillars without radical pruning. Caterpillars are known for their voracious appetites. In their larval forms, they range from 3/8" to 2" long in length and vary in color from light to dark green or from cream to yellow. Hydrangea leaftier caterpillar (Olethreutes ferriferana ) has a distinctive appearance: long green body and brown head. Plants of ginger family are targeted by this caterpillar. Leaf tiers can be further distinguished by a white and green back stripe. But The young caterpillar comes out to feed and build its own conspicuous spindle-shaped cocoon, to which it adds bits of material from the host plant. The nests of the hydrangea leaf-tier are unlikely to cause long term damage to your hydrangeas, although they are unsightly and may cause particulars flower buds to abort. Given that there are 11,000 species of moth3 in the U.S., I may never learn to distinguish between a good one and a bad one. The webbing and the frass are a dead giveaway that the insect is a moth and the treatment of first choice for these caterpillars is pretty straight forward. There is a picture on BugGuide of the larva, just like ones that have been submitted. Take leafroller insects — the adult moths that are responsible for the caterpillars are well-camouflaged, appearing in colors ranging from brown to gray, and they certainly don’t look like trouble. Hydrangea leaftier larva. Caterpillars. Leafrollers stop eating within hours after feeding on a sprayed leaf and die several days later. The caterpillar feeds on the developing flower bud and leaf surfaces within their reach. Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is an effective control for recurring problems, particularly if applied as soon as larvae hatch. This caterpillar eats pieces out of leaves and binds them together forming a nest. 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