04/11/2026
Those white silk tents in your cherry tree aren't a disaster. And they're not gypsy moths.
Eastern tent caterpillars build communal silk tents in the forks of cherry, apple, and crabapple trees every spring. The tent is a base camp — the caterpillars leave it during the day to feed on leaves, then return at night for warmth and protection.
They look alarming. A pulsing mass of caterpillars inside a web stretched across a branch fork feels like something you should remove immediately. Most people do. But the tree recovers — it puts out a second flush of leaves by early summer. Healthy trees tolerate them without lasting damage.
The caterpillars themselves are important food for cuckoos. Yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos eat hairy caterpillars that most other birds avoid. A yard with tent caterpillars in the cherry tree may have a cuckoo visiting that you'd otherwise never see.
🌲 How to tell what you have:
- Silk tent in the branch fork, caterpillars leave to feed — tent caterpillar. Spring only. Native
- Web at the branch tips enclosing the leaves, late summer — fall webworm. Also native, also tolerated by healthy trees
- No tent at all, hairy caterpillars crawling individually, serious leaf loss — spongy moth. That's the one to address
The silk tent isn't an infestation. It's a cafeteria that cuckoos are watching 🌿
