PK-L09 · Yard, turf, and garden pests

How to get rid of eastern tent caterpillars

Malacosoma americanum

Eastern tent caterpillars build obvious silk tents in cherry crotches in spring. They look apocalyptic and are usually a cosmetic, short season pest on otherwise healthy trees. They are not spongy moths (different tents vs no tents, different hosts and timing). Control is remove the tent on a cool morning and destroy larvae, or leave them for birds. Do not torch a tent in a tree next to a house. Forest tent caterpillars (no true tent in the crotch the same way) are a different Malacosoma — ID if you are in outbreak aspen country.

Eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum) — identification photo
Identification photo of Eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum). Use this with the notes below — size, color, and markings matter more than a single photo, and look-alikes are listed in the sidebar.

How to identify Eastern tent caterpillar

  • Silk tents in branch crotches of cherry, a white stripe on the back of the caterpillar.
  • Spring only in much of the East. Not a fall webworm (those make ends-of-branch tents later in the year).

Signs of an infestation

  • A white tent in a wild cherry in April–May.
  • Defoliated cherries that leaf out again.

Biology and why they show up

One generation. Egg masses on twigs. Native. Birds and weather often end it.

Health and property risk

Ugly weeks. Rarely tree death on healthy hosts. Fire from torching tents is the real household risk.

Proven control sequence

Work in this order. Skipping inspection or exclusion is why most “treatments” bounce back in a week.

  1. Remove tents in the cool morning. Larvae clustered. Destroy humanely in soapy water. Prune if practical.
  2. Do not use flame in a tree. Houses and wildfire. Not a method on this site.
  3. Btk on foliage if a high-value ornamental is being stripped. As labeled. Often unnecessary.

Prevention that actually sticks

  • Egg-mass scrape in winter on small ornamentals.
  • Accept native insects on native cherries if you can.

When to hire a licensed professional

Rarely. Municipal cherry allees maybe.

Legal and safety notes. Do not torch. Pesticide labels if you spray. Burning permits are not an IPM tool here.

United States and Tier 1 notes

Eastern US. Western tent caterpillar is a different species in the West. Fall webworm is later and on branch tips — different page logically even if we did not split it.

Common questions

Is this the spongy moth?

No. Tents in cherry crotches in spring vs oak stripping and spongy egg masses. Different insects.

Sources

Written by the Pest Kill Editorial Team. Published August 25, 2026. Last reviewed September 13, 2026.