Monday, June 4, 2012

Leaf Chompers

Sandy Bear was walking along, minding his own business, when in the stillness of the early morning, he heard something (he has very good hearing). It sounded like chewing... chewing?? A bit of investigation (he is a CSI bear after all)... and he found a whole stand of aspen trees with half-eaten or whole-eaten leaves. Closer inspection revealed a whole bunch of creepy critters eating the trees alive!
Sandy wasn't going to get too close to these things. If they could eat whole trees... they might think that his beautiful green coat was a new variety of leaf... and take a few munches out of him.
There were a lot of these things crawling all over the trees and Sandy learned that they are called "cat-er-pillars"... Now he's not sure why there is yet something else named after felines... but in this instance, he's willing to let these things keep their feline-based named. He's also not sure what these things have to do with pillars... And then he hears that they are actually called "tent cat-er-pillars". What the heck? Where's the tent? Well... a few metres away (that's a few yards in other places)... Sandy saw this...
Yup, that's definitely a tent... but a very yucky one... Sandy can see all of the cat-er-pillar poop collecting in the tent strands. Is that what that weird smell is? This small tree is a Saskatoon Berry tree... and Sandy is not pleased, NOT pleased at all, that the cat-er-pillars are destroying the future berry harvest... He tries out his best bear growl... "grrr"... But the cat-er-pillars must be hard of hearing and just kept munching away.
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7 comments:

  1. Hammie HamsterJune 4, 2012 at 11:41 AM

    I don't know if those caterpillars are the same ones that we have overhere but there are some that look just like yours and they make people sick, they lose hairs and then people start to itch and have pain in their eyes, please be carefull around those caterpillars Sandy, you might get hurt!

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  2. Jerry and BenJune 4, 2012 at 12:38 PM

    Oh no Sandy! Those leaf chompers can do a lot of damage to a nice plant or tree! Boo would bark at them and try to scare them away!

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    1. Alexander Mackenzie BearJune 4, 2012 at 6:23 PM

      Barking is probably definitely more scary than my bear growl. I think I need to practice it... grrrr... Mama says these cat-er-pillars come in epidemics... I hope they don't eat all of the beautiful green trees! I will make sure that none get into the sweet-pea patch!

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  3. Alexander Mackenzie BearJune 4, 2012 at 6:20 PM

    Thanks Hammie... my eyes are OK so far. I don't like these cat-er-pillar, creepy-crawlie things. Mama says they don't even make pretty butter-flies later, but just a beige moth. Do you have butterflies over in the Netherlands?

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  4. Buttons the BearJune 5, 2012 at 6:50 AM

    My friends Jerry and Ben told me about you, so I'm here checking out your blog.

    I see you are having a problem with tent caterpillars, they can be voracious eaters. My mom told me her dad used to cut the branches with their tents down and burn them. :( eek! He did that because they are so destructive. I hope they don't eat all your berries.

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  5. Alexander Mackenzie BearJune 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM

    Hi Buttons,

    My Mama doesn't let me play with fire too much... although she does let me collect firewood for campfires. I hope they don't eat all the berries either... that would be beary sad!

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  6. Hammie HamsterJune 6, 2012 at 9:30 AM

    We have a lot of butterflies in the Netherlands, I like them. G. Likes ladybugs :-).

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