Discuss: Summer of the Bagworm

really good and interesting story. From my reading, I felt like the bagworms became a metaphor for male/female gender relations in the midwest… probably connecting to my own experiences.

very sad story to me. i enjoyed it.

I, too, have bagworms every year here in central Indiana; yet I never have to fight them. I have found that monocultures cause more problems than they solve (three spruce planted too close together could be called a monoculture; and they are already weakened, and therefore vulnerable, by their close proximity to each other.) Since I have a huge diversity of plants on my two organically managed acres, mostly native (or even indigenous), there are plenty of other venues for the so-called pests; but also plenty of habitat for their natural predators.
I would be interested to know what ill-effects all those chemicals had on the animals and the humans involved.

Thanks for the piece.  It offered me not only a trip down memory lane, but an illustration of how tragically silly we can be in our approach to managing “pests”!

This is first-rate writing, visual and visceral. I could practially smell the chemicals and the back-of-my-brain thoughts were all about dad killing himself with chemicals. I disagree with Alexendar ref. male/female gender relations, preferring to look at the larger picture of man vs. nature.  Every time we jump into a natural cycle with a pesticide or other “management” device, we’re playing with a perfect, self-contained system of checks and balances.  No wonder our natural systems are so out of whack and we’re killing ourselves (and other species) with our obsessive need to control, to “beautify” and to amuse ourselves.  Where would dad be without the summer ritual?  Perhaps he’s hard-wired to do battle?

I loved this little piece. It reminds me immediately of the Round-Up commercial where two manly men do battle over a dandelion in a driveway crack (Round-Up wins, of course)—never mind the fact that simply pulling the bloody thing out of the crack would be the more environmentally effective way to handle the situation.  But manly men need big guns in this culture. 

Bagworms would seem equally as simple to deal with, if they’re anything like the webworms we have here in north Texas.  Whack a hole in the web/bag to open it up, and let Mom Nature do the rest of the work. No guns, no pesticides needed.  I’m glad Dad finally seems to have seen the light.

While searching the net for information on whatever is eating the spruce needles here on my acreage in northern Saskatchewan, I came across this story. It turned my frustration into a smile even though I still don’t know what those wretched worms are for sure. Thanks for making my day brighter!

Good writing! I really enjoyed reading this story. As far as the worms, down here in the hill country of Texas we burn ‘em. We clip the limbs they are attached to, preferably early in the year, and burn the whole thing. It prunes the tree a bit but it can save the tree, too.

Nice piece.  I wonder if our “illusion of control” has changed significantly since your fathers time?

Frank