Monday, May 24, 2010

A Crop Duster at Lake Mary


Last year our neighborhood was invaded by some sort of tent caterpillar that stripped trees of their leaves.  I really don't know exactly what they were but they were insidious.   Our trees didn't sustain a lot of damage but there were dozens and dozens of the nasty buggy things that actually claimed one side of our house to weave their little tents!  Ick!

Anyway, THIS year we were ready!!  Everyone in the neighborhood agreed to have a guy come to spray the trees before they could invade again.

I checked to make sure that whatever they planned to spray would not be harmful to any living thing...not plant or animal.  Or human.  I was assured that this is an eco-friendly substance that would only deter the bugs.

So Sunday the deed was done.  Here are pictures that I took of the crop duster that sprayed our trees.  The photos do not do justice to the event.

I wish you could have heard it.  It would swoop down, release it's spray and climb back up into the sky.  It sounded like a bomber!  Really.  It was so loud.  And as it dove toward the tree tops, the noise accelerated so that you wanted to cover your ears.   Then it would pull up, bank around and come in for another shot.

I have to admit that it was kind of cool! 
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Posted by CherylK at 8:05 PM
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18 comments:

  1. Cool pictures! I can almost hear the plane. :)
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  2. I enjoy watching the acrobatics of crop dusters. Nice shots!
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  3. Cheryl these are really cool photos and I hope that your nasty worms don't return this year... ewww is so right.
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  4. Great photos! We have a local crop duster, and I love to watch him fly, sometimes so close to the ground you think he's going to crash. Two weeks ago, he had his plane out surveying the flood damage. We live in a no-fly zone, due to nearby Fort Campbell, but he has permission to use his plane for his business. I guess no one minded that he was taking a few liberties in the flood!

    Those tent caterpillars are notorious in my area. Last year was terrible, and, as this year seems already loaded with all the other usual terrorist suspects, (wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, etc,) I expect the caterpillars will be too. Yuck.

    Have a wonderful week!
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  5. Wow, what an an event.;) I have never hired a crop duster nor been part of any group that did, how interesting.;) I hope your trees will do better this year.;)
    xo
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  6. my boys would have loved it...ok, i would have too. lol. hopefully it works...
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  7. These are really cool photos indeed, and to see and hear it live, Wow!
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  8. You've described the plane well enough that I could imagine the scene quite clearly. Your photos are gravy. Hopefully it will help. Coincidentally, I took a photo of some tent caterpillars just yesterday.
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  9. Hopefully this will prevent the invasion. I've been fighting my war on flies. I think all the traps and lures are pulling them in from all four corners of the property and even from my neighbors.

    But, I guess thats a good thing. Cause dead is dead and means no more!
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  10. Those tent caterpillers really creep me out.
    Add to that their destructiveness and I say, go get 'em!
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  11. Good morning Cheryl! Come by my blog if you can this morning! I think it will make you smile!
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  12. Very cool pictures! That would be an event to see. My boys would love it.
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  13. Neato.
    We get those bugs every year here...apparently if you wrap a band around the base of the tree covered in sticky stuff when the beetle climbs up the tree in the spring to lay eggs on the leaves (which hatch into those worms that then eat all the leaves) the band catches them. Unfortunately everyone doesn't band their trees so we always get some of them...
    I'd be interested to know more on what they sprayed with - it would be nice to be able to keep them off the trees...they look so sad all leafless...and the dangly little bugs are not so great either :)
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  14. Would have loved to see that happen, why didn't you switch to video?

    At first before reading, I thought "wow, that plane is flying dangerously low", but now I'm just awing at the performance.

    Hope the stuff sprayed does it work.
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  15. Double cool pics! Could hear the plane! Loved how you described all!! Hope the spray works, those caterpillars can make a real mess, very destructive. And it's really great all of you got together on this. You must have super neighbors. I rode in a crop duster once, when that plane landed I said I ain't doin' this again, and I haven't. It's easier to stay out of crop dusters than turn down an avocado sandwich, LOL.
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  16. Sounds scary and exciting and looks scary and exciting. We were sprayed here in California years ago by helicopters that would come in the middle of the night. I forgot what bug it was but was insidious. Remember back when we were young kids and they'd spray right on top of us?
    And people wonder why so many have cancer.
    I have switched to pepper spray and urine. What a lovely combination for pests. haha
    Urine probably causes cancer.
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  17. Oh, I didn't know they do that. :*> We do have planes flying over our neighborhood quite often, though. I wish they fly higher, so I don't have to listen to them. :D
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  18. Cheryl, thanks for the comments on the aerial application (crop spraying)work you had done on Lake Mary. I`m the pilot and owner of the company you had your work contracted through. I hope the work was a success and that it did help deter those tent worms. Douglas
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