When a fresh crop of catalpa worms start appearing on the undersides of Ron Manning’s catalpa trees, he isn’t the only thing they have to worry about.
“Catalpa worms don’t live an easy life,” Manning said. “A couple of years ago, I lost every crop of worms I had to the red wasps.
“They would come and get the worms when they were small and put them in their nests for their larvae to feed on.”
Another natural enemy of the worms is birds, but since catalpas pretty much stay on the underside of the leaves and there are plenty of other food sources for the birds, these predators aren’t too bad.
A third enemy of the worms is red ants. Manning said red ants often will climb up the tree and get some of the worms.
“If they survive all that, then they still aren’t out of the woods — I get them,” Manning said. “The only difference is that I never wipe out a complete crop.
“I always let lots of them go back into the ground and keep the cycle repeating itself.”