The forest tent caterpillar larvae, commonly called “army worms.” PHOTO: University of Minnesota Extension Service
The warnings started last year. The big one. It’s coming. A year like that one year 10-15 years ago (no one remembers exactly). The year of the forest tent caterpillar. The year of the Army Worms.
This native Minnesota insect is pretty in ones, interesting in tens, but disgusting in the thousands — which is how you see them every decade or so. Roadways stain red with a fine larval paste. They dangle from trees like legions of Tom Cruises from the first “Mission Impossible” reboot (which, if memory serves, came out around the time of the last army worms invasion). When it’s at its worst, the leafy trees are stripped clean and it looks like fall in the middle of the summer.
It’s all part of the natural world. Trees are attuned to quickly regenerate their leaves after the army worms go pupal and moth out.
But now the DNR is saying that the warnings might have missed the mark. Forest tent caterpillar surveys show much smaller numbers than most had predicted. Perhaps iSo, maybe this won’t be the year of rampaging army worms.
Maybe that will be … next year.
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