A reader posted a spectacular photo to our Facebook page of thousands of tiny white inchworms floating through the air near her cedar trees. While she acknowledges the sight as truly beautiful, she worries these inchworms will eat her trees.

It is true that inchworms munch on tree foliage, but it is unlikely that they can eat enough to truly damage the tree if the tree is of substantial size. There are methods to keep inchworms from devouring trees, and the most tried and true is to prevent female inchworms from laying eggs and focusing on getting rid of the new larvae. Our reader can use adhesive bands and horticultural oil to prevent female inchworms from crawling up the trunk and laying eggs. The inchworms will get stuck on the adhesive material and can be removed.

We hope our reader finds this post useful and can successfully deter inchworms from snacking on her cedars and causing serious defoliation.