City of Regina's 'worminator' begins battle with tent caterpillars, cankerworms

The City of Regina’s “worminator” truck is back in action.

It sprays trees infected with tent caterpillars and cankerworms from top to the bottom with an organic product called DIPEL that kills the insects, but is harmless to humans, pets and wildlife.

The work begins Tuesday and will take roughly two weeks, weather dependent. The spraying will only happen in North Central, the Creeks and Harbour Landing neighbourhoods.

The city monitors the count of cankerworms and sprays based on that data. A map of areas that will be treated can be seen on the city’s website.

Dealing with tent caterpillars is based on the number of complaints received by residents.

Russell Eirich with pest control explained at least in the short term, the trees won’t be impacted by the infestations.

“If we start to see this continually happen for three, four, five years out, then we’ve got some problems where the trees will start to die back,” he explained.

Cankerworms feed on elm, maple and fruit trees and can often be see hanging from silk from the trees.

Tent caterpillars prefer green ash, poplar and fruit trees and cluster together looking like one black mass on the bark.

I ain’t afraid of no worms #yqr pic.twitter.com/DmzJRWB29o

— Sarah Mills (@smillsSK) May 24, 2016