I took this photo from my car. Sorry about the quality but I didn't feel like walking up to their front door and asking them if I could walk on their property to take a picture of their "freak" shrub.
What do you all make of this? Bizarre to say the least.
I say you go up and poke it with a stick, and see if a spider comes out (take your camera).
I say that you get someone else to poke it with a stick and take your camera! Freaky!
Fall army worms did this to a tree near my house. It was eventuall fully covered. I'll bet someting similar is infesting that bush
Ummm, I'm with Mobi on this one. I'll let zonedenial come over and poke the bush with a stick and I'll stand there about 15' back with my camera.
On second thought, noooo... better yet, I'll hide behind raisedbedbob with my camera and arm him with an acetylene torch. That oughta take care of what ever is doing that to that shrub.
I first saw it last fall around Halloween time and thought it was some sort of a webbed decoration. I've been watching this thing for months and finally curiosity got the best of me because I've never seen anything like that. Ewwwww, gross.
I don't think you want me poking it with a stick. My track record in that department is a little scary... I think mothers in my old neighborhood still use stories about me to show their children what can happen to you if you start poking things with sticks. I'll watch, though.
What happened, what happened, what happened?
You can't leave us all hanging like that! Pray tell what did you do with a stick zonedenial?
My first adventure was at age four, I took a long stick and started teasing a bumblebee buzzing on the spirea hedge. He took off after me, and I just made the back steps when he stung me on the end of my little finger, which swelled up to the size of a banana. My second excursion involved what we called red violin spiders, that lived in our old chicken coop. Nobody ever told us they were black widows. I never got bitten, but my mom always remembered coming along and finding me (age 5) sitting on the ground trying to turn over a black widow with a little stick, so I could see the red violin. I can also tell you that green sticks DO conduct electricity from an electric fence. I suppose the time I jumped out of a tree and ran a stick six inches up my leg would count... as I mentioned, I was considered a fine example of how NOT to survive childhood, by most of the neighbors.
An electric fence, huh, I bet your mom was sure every night you'd be a goner, poor woman. I knew a guy who peed on an electric fence. He said that it was NOT funny. You could still see the pain in his eyes as he told the story the rest of us, of course, thought it was extremely funny.
I have a hard time just looking at that picture....Makes me think a HUGE spider will be jumping out.
Tee he he, I have brothers who used to dare each other to pee on the electric fences. Boys will be boys. And yes, willow sticks will conduct electricity. Learned that one the hard way however I can honestly say I never ever tried to flip any fiddlebacks over with a stick.
OK, I went back to the house and asked permission. The shrub was absolutely a hub of activity but I was able to get you fine folk a few better photographs. My skin was crawling by the time I left, but I got the "goods".
Wanna closer look?
Now that we're all totally grossed out, aren't you glad you don't live next door to these people?
Boy is that weird! Any idea what kind of cats those are?
My Q is why did they let it go for so long w/o doing anything to get rid of the infestation?
That bush looks like something on Elm Street.
We have infestations of tent caterpillars here in the northwest that can look like that. Usually, people are more pro-active and don't let it progress to this extent. We prune off the infested branch and squash the critters. Burning the branch is also quite effective, if you aren't in a city with a burn ban. If you catch it really early, you can just destroy the "tent" and the little guys will fall to the ground and die. They can't get back in the tree. They turn into moths and will lay eggs that hatch the following year, so I'd watch your trees to make sure you don't see them migrating over... They tend to like fruit trees in our area, but the variety you have in the mid west maybe different.
Hope this helps.
Unfortunately, control of eastern tent caterpillars is a little bit more complex than just destroying the nest and about all I can say is that I live 20 miles away from that infestation and I'm real happy there's distance between my house and that house. I am still in disbelief that this wasn't some sort of an elaborate Halloween webbing. I've never quite seen anyone allow a situation to get out of control to this extent.
And by now it is going to be expensive to get someone else to do it. That bush is dead anyway, they should just cut it down before the infestation spreads.
Yuckkkkkkkk!
I absolutely agree... a chain saw and a fire pit would be my solution. I doesn't sound like you know these neighbors well enough to suggest they should do something about their problem? I wonder if they are going on a vacation any time soon? ;)
port,
LOL!!
Hey all! Don't panic! They're not my neighbors and don't even live close. That house is in an older "neat as a pin" (other than this house) residential neighborhood that I have to pass through when I drive the kids to school in the morning. I've been watching that freaky shrub since last fall right around Halloween time and assumed it was decoration I mean... there are a few houses in that neighborhood that still have Christmas lights up so it's not exactly a stretch for there to have been "residual" Halloween decorations up. If they were my neighbors or even lived anywhere close, I would go over and offer to pay to have somebody take care of that blob of a shrub. I get this little voice that tells me by the looks of the house and the car parked in the driveway that the occupants may be considerably older and may not have the funds to address the issue. These things happen.
Bad news for those people who live around them is that they have completely defoliated that shrub and will begin to migrate to a new food source. If they're gonna get em, they're gonna need to do it at the right time of day like morning or early afternoon when they're all in the nest. If anyone has these "things" try Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
This being said, if I had a neighbor who did live by me with something like that...I wouldn't wait for them to go on vacation. I'd go and ask them to take care of it and if they wouldn't, I'd ask if I could hack it down and burn it AFTER it got hit with Bt. That whole neighborhood is going to have a problem because of those people. Ugh, better over there far away from me than over here. I've got way too many cherry trees for something like that to make an appearance.
Wow! I've never seen anything like that and I hope I never do! Amazing that they let it stay there. I couldn't sleep if that were in front of my house.
I agree with port on the solution, YUK!
M.
I was thinking midnight run with a strong concoction of liquid BT with Orthene added just for giggles. Wait til they go to sleep and saturate the stupid bush!
LOL
K
Did anyone ever do anything about that bush, Eq, or have you been avoiding the whole neighborhood. I think I would.. Ewwww...
My absolute favorite Equil thread.
My favorite "Nyquil" thread......hi Mz L!!!!!!
I admit that I missed this thread on the first go around...I am not so sure I am glad that it was bumped back to the top...FREAKY!!!
- Brent
Hi Marilyn, Ken, Dave, and Brent! So you all want an update. Well, I was right. There was a little old man living in the house who had to be in his 90's. His wife had died a few years earlier and he said she had been too sick to keep up with her flowers and that he missed them. Sweet man who allowed me to take those close up photos. As a thank you for allowing me to take the close up photos, I went and bought the Bt for him and took care of his shrub... and I picked up a patio planter and planted a 6 pack of geraniums in it for him. I placed it right outside his back door so he wouldn't have to walk far to water it. I wrote a little note on a plant stake that said flowers from heaven. I drive by that house every morning and noticed they were always watered. School let out for summer and I had forgotten about the geraniums. When school started up this plast September, I couldn't help but notice the geraniums were all healthy and watered. By October, the geraniums looked pretty fried and dead. I knocked on the door and no answer. I found out from the neighbor that the little old man had died just a few weeks earlier and that his kids were going to clean up the house and list it. The house sold about a month ago. I have no idea who lives there now but the shrub made it and actually started leafing back out sometime last year. I can take a photo and post it tomorrow of what it looks like without its Halloween finery. It actually has a nice shape to it now that it is no longer enshrouded in all that white webbing. I wonder if it will leaf out this spring.
Amazing story. Ken
I have got to get a photo of that shrub tomorrow. I'm setting my camera out so I don't forget it. If the way it looks tomorrow isn't a sale for Bt, I'll eat my shoe. Wait till you see this shrub and what it looks like. Incredible. Your jaw will really hit the ground.
About all I could make out from the "Shroud of Turin" shots were that it had opposite branching.
If it turns out to be a viburnum, I'll be so proud. Maybe have to name it:
Viburnum plicatum 'Lazarus'.
Well, let's just see what is there after I take a few photos. I must admit I never was able to "see" past that webbing. I never even noticed opposite or alternate branching because I was too hung up on the grotesqueness of the situation.
Here is the first photo, sorry about poor quality. I took it from an open window in my car-
Here's another photo that I cropped.
I am TOTALLY amazed that that is the same tree!! Bless you for taking care of it and for bringing the man some flowers. I know that must have really touched his heart. :-) And three cheers for Bt!! (What IS Bt???)
~ Marylyn
Virburnum Valley - Hi from Alyrics! Shroud of Turin indeed - I am still laughing out loud.
V. 'Lazarus' it will be forever for me.
I have to say that is the grossest plant picture I have ever seen. I had those little black tent cats last year hit my Corylopsis..contorta, and also a River Birch and a Viburnum rhytidophylum. It gave me the most serious heebie jeebies to have to get a pole cutter out and cut off those branches and actually dispose of them. Yuck. I sprayed the H out of the Corylus with a tomato spray that is supposed to disintegrate in days. Hate to use sprays but... those little black cats all standing up and waving -eeeeyikesa - they are disgusting.
And Equil - despite the ookiness of the picture - what you did was such a lovely act of generosity. Bless you for taking time to brighten his life.
Bt = Bacillus thuringiensis
Just do a search on line and you'll find it for sale. I have been using a form of Bt in my ponds to control mosquitoes for a few years now. The form you would want for tent worms would be Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. This product is not an instant kill. It takes a little while to get them.
I hate to sound sort of strange but the only time I talked to him was when I asked for permission to take photos. Once I realized that was no Halloween decoration, I asked him right then and there if he would feel comfortable allowing me to use some left over product that I had to "take care of" his shrub. He said something to the effect of it couldn't hurt and if the product was left over I could come back anytime I wanted. I never spoke to him after that. One of his neighbors must have come by and peeled off the webbing after the caterpillars were destroyed because I most certainly didn't do that. That would have been a little much for me and my skin crawls at the thought. I'm not a squeemish person but if you would have been standing close to that shrub to take the photos, you would understand because the whole thing was writhing and had a pulse for lack of a better description. As far as the little planter, I think I picked that up at WalMart or Home Depot and potted it up and just set it outside his door with the little stake and left. Please don't get overly impressed, it was probably all of $5 plus the cost of a few geraniums. I sort of did it as an afterthought because I looked at his yard and realized there wasn't anything nice left. I didn't even ring his doorbell. I doubt he knows it was me. I looked around for the planter this morning but his kids must have taken it home when they were cleaning out the house to ready it for sale. I did notice the new owners have a really neat old park bench in the back yard that I didn't notice before.
Wow.....flowers from Heaven. He enjoyed his flowers all summer before he passed away in the fall. Awesome timing on that act of kindness Eq. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Karen :~D
Edited....it's not the $..... it's the thought. And what a lovely one. Don't sell yourself short, he knew exactly who left those flowers and probably wondered if you would come back so he could thank you. Even if he didn't know who left it then.....I bet his wife told him when he saw her again. :~)
This message was edited Feb 27, 2006 7:56 AM
Even my scalp is crawling. That is one gross shrub. I hope I never see anything like it. I have seen bag worms and my DD would take a long stick and wrap a rag on the end. He would set the rag on fire and hold it up to burn the web worms and all.
I will never close my eyes that I don't see that.
Eq. That was such a sweet thing you did with the geraniums. It doesn't make a difference how much it cost.picturing the smiles the little man had on his face day after day,while care of it and watering them. Oh the mental picture is worth millions of dollars. What a blessing you were as I am sure he also smiled in remembrance of his sweet wife.
I know in my heart he lived longer more fulfilled days not just missing her, but you put a smile where there was only sadness. I am sure of it.
God Bless You for the flowers from heaven.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
Ya, it made my scalp crawl too and the hairs were standing up on my arms.
Thanks for your comments. Interestingly enough, my husband had told me to go back and quick fast pick up the planter because the little old man might resent having to water it daily. He said some people like their lives just as they are. I left it and my husband told me to at least go back and bring him a little watering can. I kept forgetting to do that and then school let out and I felt a little guilty last summer as I never quite made it up that way until school started again. He must have had a watering can or else he used a pitcher to water his geraniums. All in all, I think he must have liked them or he wouldn't have watered them all summer long. I think I'd do it again although my husband had me somewhat hesitant to consider dropping something off like that without asking permission.
Sweetie,
There is no fun in asking permission. Even if the little old man would have thrown them out, it is not what he does with them in the end, it is the heart in which they were given. And in this case you both got extremely blessed.
Don't ever second guess an act of love and kindness. I learned it is not what the man on the corner does with the couple dollars I give, It is how I give it. I am always blessed having done something nice. A man stood in the cold rain last week on the corner. I rolled down my window and thought I had 2.00 in my pocket but could only find 1. I told him it was all I had and he said "every little bit helps" I reached back in my pocket and found and gave him the other one. I was blessed by what he said over only a dollar.
You are a blessing.
