Friends of Pipers Orchard

This work party was all about reducing the number of living Western Tent Caterpillars in the orchard.It looked as though we arrived in between mows…

The cut grass was not a very effective moat, alot of the trees were quite infested.

Ideally we would have arrived before breakfast

So the critters would all be home.

We got to quite a few though either by squishing them with our hands

where we could reach,

Or using the pole to clip tent hosting branches…

and drown the inhabitants in soapy water

By the appearance of some nests, we were being assisted, either by self defense chemicals from the apple trees, or wasps or?

Notice the little dried up carcasses.

Just another beautiful day in the orchard for the big Bartlett Pear.