What are the reasons to control forest tent caterpillars?
To protect valuable ornamental foliage and perennial plants from defoliation. Examples would be fruit trees, small fruit crops and gardens. These plants or areas are often small in size and are suitable for treatment from the ground. To reduce caterpillar populations in order to reduce the nuisance to people. This could include resorts and private campgrounds which might suffer economically during the June activity of the FTC. Also groups of homeowners or lakeshore associations may wish to preserve the aesthetics of their land. Due to the size of the trees and the acreage involved, this spraying must be done by helicopter or airplane. To prevent defoliation on high value hardwoods that have suffered drought stress, other defoliators or stem borer (two-lined chestnut borer on oaks) attack in the past two years. These already weakened trees may die from the additional stress of defoliation.
