Moth eggs on twisted willow
Stephanie newish gardener
Posts: 516
Hi
In our old house our twisted willow was infested each year by caterpillers that we think turned out to be of the tiger moth. We moved house and planted the tree in the ground and until this year we were pest-free.....
This evening I belatedly spotted clear evidence of another attack, with eggs, holes in leaves and some caterpillers already hatched.
My husband wants to spray the tree but I don't think our mainstream greenfly bug spray will help, especially as the eggs have been laid already.
Is there anything we can do, apart from trying to pick eggs and bugs off each leaf? It's a reasonable size tree now and that would take forever, though I'm happy to try to relocate the caterpillers at least.
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish. 
0
Posts
Dunno what they are, there are many species (some very attractive) of insect that feed on willow, but I doubt if they will do serious damage and it will recover anyway, so I would leave them alone and learn to love them!
I'm always happy to try to live and let live, but not when they can totally strip a tree in a few days! Some branches never recovered from a previous attack and remain bare.