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My brother-n-law has some nest in his biggest tree and today we were looking at the nest. Only one seems to have a few worms. My question is when is the peak time for the worms. We want to collect some place them in meal and freeze them. I think they are some of the finest brim bait around.
The Sphinx Moths lay eggs on tree and hatch out caterpillars (Catalpa Worms ) Never saw a nest just eaten leaves. They grow fast so keep a close watch cause once mature the worms leave. I pefer to use them fresh for bait. Catfish love those worms. I put them in plastic bags in the crisper drawer and the cool keeps them good for several days. The little woman hates it but sure good place to keep them.:Rofl I plant the Umbrella Catalpa trees as they don't get real big like Northern or Southern Catalpa trees making harvesting worms easier.
Im with Nimrod on the nest.I have a couple trees and havent ever noticed a 'nest' of any sort.Nimrod,where do you find the umbrella trees? The city where I work has some huge catawba trees in a old textile mill land,probally big as a 55 gallon drum.Ive never saw any worms on these big trees though.
A nest sounds more like tent caterpillars than catalpa worms.
is a catawba worm like a catalpa worm, or the same thing? our "catalpa worms" are green and black worms. havent had any on my old tree for years though.
where I fish there are several hanging over the water, fish go nuts when the worms are on the leaves, haven't seen any this year
If not finding local order from tree nursery . You can cut off a good sized limb in spring when they bud out to propagate. Dip in water and then in root tone to coat where it will contact wet dirt. Push in several inches of good soil and keep watered and they will take root.Quote:
Originally Posted by bearclaw
My uncle an I used to get them and head to the bluegill hole. Definitely a confidence bait. Many years ago, people use to turn them inside out with a nail. Said it made them more attractive to fish. (got this tidbit from an old Havilah Babcock book, he was an outdoor writer who wrote about hunting and fishing. I highly recommend his books if you love the outdoors)
sounds like what we called pecan worms
Pecan or Oak worms will catch fish but those big Catalpa worms are best in my opinion .:twocents The Catalpa Worms do not make a web like others do and only get on Catalpa Trees.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd
Used use them a lot when I fished with my grandpa years ago. Hard to beat catalpa worms for bait. They're hard to find around here in Jonesboro. Plenty of trees, but no worms.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIMROD
I think they only form on the female trees, The ones without the cigars hanging off them. Around here July is the best month for them.
i had them on my trees until about 1985. the trees also had the "cigars". im pretty sure its the younger trees that get the worms. still havent heard what the difference between the catawba worm and the catalpa worm is. i think its really catalpa unless you have a mouth full of redman. lol
Here is the explanation, either is acceptable:Quote:
Originally Posted by river scum
Etymology[edit]
The name derives from the Catawba Native American name catawba for these trees (the tribal totem), with the spelling catalpa being due to a transcription error on the part of the describing botanist (Scopoli) making the first formal scientific description of the genus. The rules of botanical naming state that the spelling used in the formal scientific description has to be retained for the scientific name. The name in vernacular use has very largely (though not completely) followed Scopoli's erroneous transcription, with catawba still in use in some areas of the United States, most particularly within the trees' native range
The trees are common here in the South as was the Indian tribe, so Catawba is a common spelling.
As SeaRay pointed out, Catawba and Catalpa are the same. At what point in history was it respelled?
If you enter "catawba worm" in the search window and let google do the work, you could have found the answer.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/showt...orms-tree-care
My wife has her grandmother's old Ball canning book and a brand new one. In the old book you boil juice down to make a sirup, in the new book you make a syrup.
If you have trees go get some worms and put them on the trees .Quote:
Originally Posted by Slabyanker
Both of my trees have the 'cigars" on them and both have worms.I know where some huge trees are but never saw them get ate up.
heres some young worms
http://i60.tinypic.com/30j4fau.jpg
heres a tree thats been ate slam up,,,all the leaves eaten,you can see the "beans" or cigars hangang
http://i60.tinypic.com/200dzbp.jpg
Years ago a neighbor had a tree next to the driveway. It was tall about 6 inches diameter at the base. The worms got heavy on it. The lady said she didn't want the mess so cut it down. I collected all of the worms I could then. The next season with the stump about an inch high the birds were having an easy meal on the pupas.
Mine has plenty of the beans/cigars on them.I was told that was the seed.I never have any sprouts under mine as for they are in the edge of my yard and I keep the grass cut around them.If any of you fellers would like any of the beans this fall when they dry on the tree,you are welcome to them.I could probally send some thru the mail in the little pouches,...Ive never planted any seeds though....Im just offering them to anyone who would like to try it..sam
Sam, when the beans turn tan peel the hull away you will see flat seeds that look like little patches of paper then the core of the pod.
I would put a good number of seeds in a small envelope then address a larger envelope on another website. I sent out a few seed samples, never heard if the grew or not.
i have a large tree in my neighbor yard . haven`t seen a worm but 1 year in the last 20 years and that was last year the top was eaten up pretty good 2 weeks ago now don`t see any guess the birds ate them . i do have a few sprouts around my yard next to a fence and the house that started 2 years ago and was eaten up last year now non this year .there was several crops last year just watching to see if they are any this year on the young sprouts .going to root some more and keep them cut so i can reach the top .
I grew up Nockin Togga worms for Summer money. All gone now ag. Pesticides . were every where.
We usually had lots till drought and Fire Ants. Kinda odd they just showed up last couple weeks here. Kinda late but atleast they may be coming back.
Blanch your worms and freeze them in water. My dad has worms that in his freezer that we're picked and blanched 10 years ago. I can thaw them out and they look like they were picked yesterday. They stay on the hook alot better as well.
very interesting pintail ! i wonder if a guy could freeze crawlers? i had a box of crawlers in the basement one year well into ice season. i took some out to tip my jig with and the bass loved them. i had a guy walk over and ask what i was using. when i said crawlers he grumbled bs and walked off, like i was lying to him. lol
I'm sure you could freeze night crawlers as long as they are in water... I would recommend blanching your catapala worms for sure. My dad has 3 trees in his backyard that still has worms now. Its been a really weird year for worms. If you do blanch them, make sure you have a pan of cool water so you can transfer them in there after you finish boiling them. 3-5 minutes in the boiling water and let them cool down in cold water, freeze them in water and 10 years later, you'll still have good bait.Quote:
Originally Posted by river scum
At 3-5 minutes you are beyond blanching- those worms are cooked! Do the whisker fish still love them with no green juices oozing out?
LOL! Im serious. It takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes to boil your worms. As long a they don't turn brown, they are fine. I think catfish like them better blanched as opposed to live from the tree. That's just my opinion.
PT- this is great news and I know that my wife will be thrilled to see Catalpa Worms boiling on the stove as they prepare to join their brothers and sisters in the freezer alongside the crappie heads I keep for Mr. Blue Whiskers bait. Yes, no question one of us married well back in 1975!
Which one??
CC - A friend of mine uses bluecat belly meat for catching blues on the big O. He slices up the meat into strips and hooks them on and is never out of bait. His leftovers go into the freezer until the next time he goes fishing. He never has to search for shad or perch or crappie heads laying around. A perpetual fishing machine. Recycling at its finest. I slapped myself when he told me what he was doing. Duhhhh:highfive
On rare occasion she believes she won the marriage lottery. The days when she looks behind the pork butts and ribs and briskets and finds crappie heads and vulture food ( yeah I have a pet vulture named Stinky) are never one of those happy occasions tho. I'm pretty sure she never expected so many of my hobbies to wind up in her freezer but hey, she coulda asked my Mom. When I was a kid I kept a big freezer basket full of dead birds to feed my hawks. Doesn't everybody? (-;
:Rofl You b d man CC. Stinky????????????? How do you feed him from long distance??? Don't tell me your wife does the deed. I think "rare" is the key word here. REALLY rare. Next thing you are going to tell us is that you have a pet python and feed him the neighborhood cats, dogs, and wayward, unattended children. A fishing trip with you requires a box of Kleenex.
Named him Stinky after an " incident" at the church Halloween Trunk or Treat a few years ago. I had my Zombie with Pet Vulture thing going on with a Tupperware of little chicken treats for the kids to feed to the vulture. Everything was smooth until I tried to force him back into his little traveling box at which point he got really upset- with lots of hissing and wing flapping- and then he threw up! The party was definitely over at that point. Vulture vomit smells worse than any catfish bait ever hoped to. Thus Stinky earned his new name- very effective defense mechanism. I for one will never eat vulture again! True story with way too many witnesses. Sorry it has nothing to do with Catalpa Worms!
Back to the worms, I freeze my catalpa worms in cornmeal, keeps 'em from sticking together....This year we're having a problem with those parasitic wasps killing off whole batches of worms.... I can't find anything on the 'net that says how to prevent/control them... Anybody else know about these ?...
Hard to control the black wasp and any insect without damage to the worm crop. I buy 2 cases of the Fly Stick juniors before the first worm is spotted. Hang one in each tree, but you only catch so many insects. I have 2 that are about a month old on the back porch that are almost full of red/orange wasp. The worms with parasites we pick them off and throw them into the pond. If you pull the parasites off the worm, it's dead.
Here is what me and Dad figured out, you can wipe your worm crop out if you pick them all, so we pick out a big limb and leave them all on there, from everything I have read, the worms go back in the ground under the tree after there cycle on the tree, and go into there cocoon cycle and stay there all winter, the moth will only hatch out after the ground reaches above 60 degree's, she flys/climbs up and lays eggs on the underside of the leaves, the moth has a very short range that she can fly, so they usually fly climb straight up and start laying eggs, tree size make's no diff it is more to low limbs, that is why you see them more on young tree's because of the lower limbs Dad has some 24" dia tree's that have worms but the limbs almost touch the ground, so if your not seeing them on your tree's it's probable because there was not enough left to make it to the next year, could have been birds or wasps or over picking, either way you can restock your tree's just have to find someone that does not use them and go pick them and move to your tree's, tie some tin pans or something to keep the birds scared off, wasps well that is something to figure out, no flowers close to tree help some, this is the way my grandpa always started off a new crop of tree's, hope this helps some of you get you some of your worms back in your tree's, and as far as storing. blanch in boiling water, I drop them in and as soon as they come back up dip them out not sure how long never have timed it, but Im guessing less than a min. drop them in ice water, pat them dry and bag them up with 25 to a bag with corn meal. then freeze them, keep them out of the sun when fishing with them as in the ice chest and they will still have the bright colors and the green juice inside when you put them on the hook, freezing them in water has always turned them black so I always go with dry them and cornmeal them.