Thread: Catalpa worms in Benton

We have about 15 trees here, Most of them bloom. There are some that never have had a single worm on it, But we have several too small to bloom that gets every leaf stripped. The Eggs are from a small Moth about 3/4 inch long. Big worms are 3" long , Chartruse in color with Black stripes that run the legnth of its body, ITs about the size of a ball Point Pen. If you use them live put leaves in with them, and lots of ventilation, and can not be left in the sun . Too many worms in a container die quick. When the worms fall out of the tree they burrow into the ground where they Pupate and emerge next year as the little brown moth.

We used to have several trees, they never did produce much though and certainly didn't produce we'll enough to freeze any for later.

When I was a kid, the tree produced year after year. Now, I can't remember the last time it had a worm in it. The butterfly must not like Ville Platte. But then, who does? I"M JUST JOKING !!! I'm from Ville Platte. I can say that.

Originally Posted by Dapet

When I was a kid, the tree produced year after year. Now, I can't remember the last time it had a worm in it. The butterfly must not like Ville Platte. But then, who does? I"M JUST JOKING !!! I'm from Ville Platte. I can say that.

I love it! Half my family lives down the road by the Crawfish Barn!

There are three varieties of catalph trees. Does anyone know for certain if all three will have the worms or are they only associated with the one with the long bean pods?

They like young trees a friend of mine has an uncle that would cut back his trees every year and the butterflies would lay eggs on the fresh young leaves. He had thousands of worms on his 10 trees. We kept them in cornmeal in the ice box until we used them. You could catch as much as 20 bream on 1 worm cut into 3 or 4 pieces they are tough little buggers. I caught plenty of catfish on them while fishing for bream also, they're good bait if you can find them but its hard with all the pesticides that are used these days. I've only seen worms on a few mature trees and figure it's just by chance they were on them because I never saw them again.

these were popular when I was a kid.....not many folks had $$$ to buy bait.....my uncle had a tree which provided the whole family......we did the cornmeal thing back then also....that was 60 years ago.....thanks for the reminder of old times....

Few years ago I was bank fishing on Saline Bayou (Natchitoches Parish) and saw catalpa trees in the woods with worms on them. I didn't know they grew and certainly didn't think they'd have worms with all the critters around to eat them.

A lot of the old home places have old trees on the property. If there is enough sun light there will be uddles of little trees that could be dug up and transplanted. Most people that own the land would be glad to see the decendants of those trees go on to put the sparkle in a childs eyes.

How long do you think they'll be around? Would love to have some, but not sure when I could get over there. Thanks a bunch for the offer!